Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has been disqualified from participating in the primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the forthcoming governorship poll in Edo State.
He was declared unfit to contest in the exercise to choose the APC’s flagbearer along with two others by the party’s Screening Committee.
The chairman of the committee, Professor Jonathan Ayuba, announced this on Friday at the National Secretariat of the ruling party in Abuja, the nation’s capital.
He made the announcement while briefing the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, and other party chieftains on the outcome of the screening exercise.
“We have screened six aspirants; three were deemed eligible to participate and three were found ineligible to participate,” Ayuba told party leaders at the briefing.
He explained 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.
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Meanwhile, the governor has rejected the outcome of the screening exercise, saying he would not appeal his disqualification by the committee.
In a statement by his spokesman, Crusoe Osagie, Governor Obaseki described the exercise as a mockery of the democratic process.
The governor noted that he had initially asserted that there was no way that he would get a fair assessment in the run-up to the nomination of the party’s flagbearer in the September 19 poll.
“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,” he alleged.
Yetunde Adegoke
