Edo 2020: Obaseki opts for another party

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State was last night weighing different options and considering the party he would bear their flag in the September governorship election after the Prof. Jonathan Ayuba-led Screening Committee of the All Progressives Congress APC for the Edo state Governorship primary election disqualified him, as well as Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi and Hon. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen.

Sources close to the governor said a final decision would be taken today even as some politicians in the state had eyes on the Peoples Democratic Party. But even as that option appeared shaky, close friends of the governor boasted that they had a joker, vowing that the governor would be re-elected in September. The governor, his aides, said, would not appeal the disqualification.

Presenting the report of the committee to the National Working Committee NWC of the party on Friday in Abuja, Prof. Ayuba cited discrepancies in the names and certificates of the governor. For Ogiemwonyi, the committee also cited discrepancies in his names while it disqualified Iduoriyekemwen on the grounds that he instituted a suit against the party without exhausting all mechanisms of settlement in line with the APC Constitution.

Speaking on the activities of his committee, Prof. Ayuba said; “We are staking our integrity. The integrity of the process in this country in order to arrive at what we have done. Mr Chairman, our report is conclusive. Every member signed and has agreed with what we have decided at the committee level. This is essential because we want to be judged by what we have done and what we are presenting.

“We were thorough in the manner in which we conducted the exercise. We recorded live the interaction with each of the aspirants. The unedited clip is what we are giving as part of our report. We want to be judged by what we have done and not by what a third party says or by rumour.

“The methodology we used is clear. It was evidence-based. All we did was an interaction.