*Go to Appeal Committee, says APC official

By Dapo Akinrefon

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said he will not appeal his disqualification from All Progressives Congress, APC, primaries, an act he described as “Oshiomhole’s rascality.”

However, while reacting to Obaseki’s disqualification, a party official told Vanguard that the screening committee had finished its job and that any aggrieved aspirant should go to the Appeal Committee.

Meanwhile, Governor Obaseki’s position on the disqualification was contained in a statement by Mr. Crusoe Osagie, Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy.

Obaseki said: “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.”

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“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 efforts 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.

“Long live Edo State. Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

“Any aggrieved aspirant should appeal”

All Progressives Congress, APC, on Friday, advised governorship aspirants not satisfied with the decision of the party’s Screening Committee to appear before its Appeal Committee and lodge a complaint.

Asked to react to Obaseki’s disqualification, a top APC official, who spoke to Vanguard in confidence, advised the disqualified aspirants to follow its laid down procedure and file an appeal before the committee if they have any issue against the Screening Committee.

The APC official said: “They (disqualified aspirants) are going to appeal. Any of the aspirants, who is not satisfied, can appear before the Appeal Committee which starts today.

“That is the procedure; we don’t have any role to play at this stage. The Screening Committee has finished its work, the Appeal Committee will take over from there — there is nothing new about that.”

Recall that the governor had earlier expressed doubt that he will get fair treatment from the screening committee, following the clash of political wills between him and Oshiomhole.

Also, earlier today, he had released a statement expressing fears that Oshiomhole will announce his disqualification from the Edo APC primaries, which became a reality when the committee chairman, Professor Jonathan Ayuba unveiled the names of the aspirants unfit to contest for the Edo governorship election.

The names of the disqualified aspirants, according to Ayuba, were Osari Obazee,  Chris Ogiemwonyi and Governor Godwin Obaseki.

Vanguard