By Osahon Osahon
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has rebuked the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) on the method of primary to be adopted for the forthcoming governorship primary of the party in the state.
Obaseki particularly said the NWC has no power to decide how the party governorship primary in the state will be conducted.
APC has slated its governorship primary in the state for next month while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has fixed the main election for September this year.
Obaseki’s outburst followed reports that the National Chairman of the APC has ordered direct primary to be used in Edo.
The governor, an estranged political son of Oshiomhole, who doubled as the immediate past governor of the state, has been enmeshed in cold war as the former NLC chairman is alleged to be against the incumbent for a second term in office.
In as statement signed by Obaseki’s Special Adviser on Media and Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, the governor said it is only the National Executive Committee of the party that can decide the mode of the primary.
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Obaseki said, “That report was a scoop, there was no meeting of the NWC in which the decision was taken. If the Oshiomhole camp is having it at the back of their minds that it is what they want to do, they don’t have the power to do that.
“The power to direct what kind of primary to do rests on NEC and NEC at the last meeting decided that because of the dissenting voices, all modes of primary should be decided by the different state chapters as it was done in Kogi and Bayelsa. In Kogi, for example, they determined the kind of primary they wanted, and in Bayelsa, the same thing happened.
“So, in Edo, the same method will be adopted, according to the rules of NEC. We will now write the NWC to say this is the mode of primary that we want.”
The statement further explained the position of the party’s national chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun confirming that President Muhammadu Buhari had already adopted Obaseki and Ondo State Governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, as the preferred candidates for the governorship elections unless they decided not to run.
