BREAKING: Governor Obaseki Reacts As APC Disqualifies Him From Contesting Edo Primary Election

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has disqualified Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, from contesting in the party’s June 22, 2020, primary election.

Obaseki and five other aspirants were screened by the committee earlier this week to validate their credentials and grant them clearance to vie for the party’s ticket to contest in the September 19 Edo governorship election.

When the Professor Jonathan Ayuba-led seven-member committee presented its report to the party’s National Working Committee on Friday, June 12, 2020, the committee said Obaseki and two other candidates were not cleared.

Obaseki’s disqualification was due to the committee’s judgement that the governor’s school leaving certificate and NYSC certificate are defective.

Ayuba said the committee observed that his NYSC certificate bears the name ‘Obasek’.

“While this may be an error on the part of the issuing authority, we observed that the aspirant has not taken any step whatsoever to have the anomaly corrected by the issuing authority,” the committee chairperson said.

Ayuba said the governor also failed to provide supporting documents that the committee requested during his screening.

The committee said it found it difficult to authenticate Obaseki’s NYSC certificate, and, coupled with his defective school leaving certificate, determined that the governor is ineligible to participate in the election.

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In a swift reaction, Governor Obaseki said he will not appeal the outcome of the screening exercise which disqualified him from participating in the primary election.

In a communique by his spokesman, Crusoe Osagie, the governor said he watched the mockery of the democratic process, which “Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, is administering and superintending” over in his party the APC.

Governor Obaseki stated that it has been an unfortunate, disheartening, and dreadful spectacle.

Obaseki noted that he had initially asserted that going by the open display and enthronement of illegality by one man in the party that comprises several organs and eminent personalities, there is no way that he would get a fair assessment in the run-up to the nomination of candidates to fly the flag of the party in the forthcoming Edo gubernatorial election.

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The governor said it is unfortunate that this “open show of shame, illegality, and travesty of justice is the brand of democracy which Comrade Oshiomhole has reduced the APC into”. Adding that the situation is quite saddening because this is a party supposedly reputed for change, equity and social justice.

“We have therefore decided that it would be an effort in futility to appeal whatever the unjust outcome of the evaluation and screening process of the APC will be, especially when Comrade Oshiomhole has declared that he is the Supreme Court and ultimate determiner of the fate and future of our great party.

“We wish Oshiomhole well in his maladministration of the party and trust that the Almighty will help our country to find the path to true liberty, freedom, and justice,” he stated.

Governor Obaseki called on all party members and his teeming supporters to remain calm and await further directives.

KanyiDaily had reported that Oshiomhole is believed to be backing Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu who emerged the consensus candidate of his own faction of the APC.

Pastor Ize-Iyamu had contested against Obaseki on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2016 but lost.