Amid the disputed September 21, 2024, governorship result which the Peoples Democratic Party claim they won, the state’s House of Assembly Speaker Blessing Agbebaku has embraced the result as declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission.
Recall that the PDP, from the National to the state level, and even the State Governor and Government, rejected the result, and are headed to Court.
The PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, described the election which threw up Monday Okpebholo of the All Progressive Congress as the worst in Nigeria’s history. They are all headed to Court to challenge the outcome. But, pending that, the Speaker thinks otherwise.
In a surprise move, Speaker Blessing Agbebaku sent a congratulatory message to the Governor-elect in defiance of the stand of his Party, the PDP.
In the congratulatory message, he advised Okpebholo to be wary of sycophants.
Okpebholo, according to the results declared by INEC, defeated Ighodalo by scoring 291,667 votes as against 247,274 votes.
Congratulating Okpebholo at plenary on Wednesday, the Speaker acknowledged him as Governor-elect.
He said: “The governor-elect is for Edo people and not for the All Progressives Congress alone and I prayed that sycophants do not mislead him.”
The Speaker lost his Constituency, Owan West to the APC which polled 12,277 to PDP’s 11,284 votes.
The Agbebaku-led House of Assembly has also just recalled two members of the State House of Assembly who have been on suspension in the past four months.