By Stanley Ugagbe
Governor Godwin Obaseki’s bid to secure a second term has been given a tsunami blow as he has been disqualified from participating in the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the forthcoming governorship poll in Edo State.
The governor who has been at loggerhead with the National chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole was declared unfit to contest in the exercise to choose the APC’s flagbearer along with two others by the party’s Screening Committee.
Professor Jonathan Ayuba, chairman of the committee disclosed the development at the National Secretariat of the ruling party in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
Ayuba made the announcement while briefing the APC National Chairman and other party chieftains on the outcome of the screening exercise.
He said “We have screened six aspirants; three were deemed eligible to participate and three were found ineligible to participate”.
Delineating on the development, Ayuba succinctly averred that Governor Obaseki was disqualified on the grounds that his HSC and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates were “defective”.
According to the committee chairman, the team took the decision to disqualify and clear aspirants based on some references and documents.
In a swift reaction, the governor rejected the outcome of the screening exercise, but noted that he would not appeal his disqualification by the committee.
In a statement 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 All Progressives Congress (APC).
In his words, the embattled governor remarked that it has been an unfortunate, disheartening, and dreadful spectacle.
It would recalled that the Edo State number one citizen had initially averred 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.
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”.
He added that the situation is quite saddening because this is a party supposedly reputed for change, equity and social justice.
Obaseki stated that “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”.
