- APC’ll pay dearly for this misadventure – Odigie-Oyegun
Edo State governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has rejected his disqualification by the screening panel of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the primary election of the party, in preparation for the governorship election in the State.
He described the report as a show of shame, sinful, illegal and a travesty of justice.
The screening panel headed by Professor Jonathan Ayuba had on Friday presented the report of the committee to the party’s National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, disqualifying Obaseki and two other aspirants from contesting in the party’s primary scheduled for June 22.
But reacting to the disqualification, Obaseki, in a statement through his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, said the whole exercise was a show of shame.
The statement reads:
“We have watched the mockery of the democratic process, which Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, is administering and superintending over in our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). It has been an unfortunate, disheartening and dreadful spectacle.
“We 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 Governor Godwin Obaseki 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.
“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. 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 luck 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.
“We call on all party members and the teeming supporters of Governor Obaseki to remain calm and await further directives.”
Meanwhile, a former National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, said the party will suffer “dire consequences” in Edo State on account of the disqualification of Obaseki by the APC screening panel.
The former party chieftain made his position known through a statement, which reads in part:
“While not a surprise that disqualification is a clear indication that internal democracy has been murdered in APC, a party which we founded on the principles of fair play and good conscience!
“I dare say that APC will suffer dire consequences in Edo State if this disqualification is not speedily reversed.
“As a matter of fact, Oshiomhole is indeed the one who is guilty of anti-party (activities), not Obaseki. Oshiomhole is the one who is acting unconstitutionally, not Obaseki. I hope that Oshiomhole will not go down in history as the undertaker of APC,” Odigie-Oyegun lamented.