From Uche Nnorom, Makurdi
Two Aspirants for Otukpo/Ohimini Federal Constituency in the just concluded House of Representatives primary Lawrence Onoja jnr and Andrew Agbo Abu have faulted the conduct of the election, describing it as ‘fraudulent’
Lawrence Onoja is son to retired General Lawrence Onoja, erstwhile Principal Staff officer to the late Chief of General Staff General Oladipo Diya under the Abacha administration.
He alongside three others contested in the House of Representatives primaries held on Saturday 16th 2026.
Speaking with Journalists at the APC secretariat where they submitted their petition, the duo alleged that materials were taken to the Deputy Governor’s residence in Otukpo and then handed over to Blessing Onuh.
They claimed that materials were later diverted to a hotel where figures were allocated.
“Zoning has always existed in the constituency, it has been two terms for Ohimini and two for Otukpo. Otukpo is finishing its second term, unfortunately the incumbent is someone who has been boasting that she has the money to buy it all and to a large extent she has succeeded in doing that.
“On the day of the primary when everyone has gone into the field for the election. First of all, there was no accreditation of members or agents, nothing was done and the materials were taken to the residence of the Deputy Governor and handed over to Blessing Onuh and she went to Ochaocho Hotel room 006 to be precise where they sat and wrote all the results.
“She clained that I scored 925 while in my own ward, during the mock election since materials did not come there, I scored more than that. She gave herslf 17,000 votes but if you go by the record, the total number of registered voters for both Otukpo and Ohimini is slightly above 15,000. So, how did she score 17,000? So, am here to state it categorically that there was no primaries in Otukpo/Ohimini. No material was taken to the local governments. We are bitter and insist that the party internal processes should be adhered to.
“I have been a party man for 27 years and a member of APC since its inception, so we expect the party hierarchy to call me if such a thing happened but to allow such a fraudulent thing take place is very ‘callous’ and ‘unfortunate’.
“The electorates are very angry and there was even a protest in Otukpo that it should be Ohimini turn. If Blessing is so honored, they should give her something else like Minister or senate but what we rotate it is not right to shortchange Ohimini as a whole. This is my grouse over this matter.
“I have submitted by petition and am hoping that justice will be served. It is a gross misconduct and violation of the party and INEC regulations. Announcing results in a private place is wrong. We appeal that the national secretáriat take this as a very serious issue. If zoning is applied in some cases, it should also, apply in another”, Lawrence insisted.
On his part, Andrew Agbo Abu fumed at the development, decrying that what happened is an arbitration of democracy.
He said, “Some persons think they are too powerful so they abscond with materials to a hotel while our supporters were waiting eagerly for primaries to take place. My appeal to the national leadership of the party and Mr. President is that we can not condone this injustice, the seat should be rotated and we have general election ahead if the party is not careful it may suffer defeats.
“They should address this anomaly because as far as am concerned, there was no primary election but illegal selecrion in Ohimini/Otukpo federal Constituency”.
