Dump APC, Supporters Tell Obaseki

The Obaseki faction of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has criticized the disqualification of Governor Godwin Obaseki from the party’s June 22 governorship primaries, branding it “totally unacceptable” and falling “short of acceptable moral and legal standards and smacks of mischief.”

Stakeholders led by the chairman of the faction, Mr. Anselm Ojezua, yesterday said in a communiqué at the end of an emergency meeting to review the governor’s disqualification that the governor and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, should “immediately explore all options going forwad,” since the APC National Working Committee has “foreclosed his chances of actualising his aspiration within the party.”

On the reasons given by the APC screening committee for ruling Obaseki ineligible for a fresh ticket, the stakeholders said: “By the provisions of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the guidelines of the All Progressives Congress and even judicial precedents, all the aspirant has to show is that he is educated up to school certificate level.

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“The reference to HSC and NYSC is therefore somewhat superfluous.”

They recalled that Obaseki himself had “earlier expressed his reservations and doubts as to whether he would get a fair treatment in that exercise,” especially with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole “supervising the process when he has shown in many ways that he is an interested party.”

They called into question the validity of the committee “having regards to the provisions of the constitution of the party.”

They said that by the screening committee’s action, it “has robbed the Edo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress the most valuable asset they have to fly the flag of the party in the forthcoming governorship election,” and has also “disqualified all of us.”