The Professor Ayuba Jonathan-led seven-member screening Committee set up by the All Progressives Congress to screen aspirants interested in contesting in the June 22 primaries of the party has disqualified the incumbent governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki and two others.
The others disqualified were Matthew Aigbuhuenze Iduoriyekemwen and Chris Ogiemwonyi.
According to the committee the reason for disqualifying Obaseki was as a result of some discrepancies in his educational and NYSC certificates.
The Committee also said the decision by both Obaseki and Iduoriyekemwen to drag the APC and the national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to court in defiance to the provision of the APC constitution form part of its decision.
Obaseki and Oshiomole have been embattled for a long time over the soul of the APC in Edo state.
Oshiomhole while reacting to the development urged the affected aspirants to appeal the decision of the committee at the appeal Committee set up by the party.
Meanwhile Obaseki, in a statement released by his spokesman, Crusoe Osagie, said he will not appeal the decision of the committee.
He alleged that Oshiomole orchestrated the move from the beginning stressing that approaching the appeal Committee would be futile.
The statement reads, “We have watched the mockery of 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 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.”
