Edo governorship poll: APC inaugurates screening, appeal committees for primaries
The All Progressives Congress (APC) has inaugurated screening and appeal committees for the June 22, Edo governorship primaries.
APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, performed the ceremony on Tuesday at the party National Secretariat in Abuja.
Oshiomhole urged the committees to do a thorough job.
“I want to encourage you to take this exercise very seriously. I’m sure
you can only imagine how we felt as a party after we won an election in
Bayelsa.
“There were no questions, in fact, best election ever conducted in Bayelsa .
“There was no violence, people voted but we lost it because the deputy
governor according to the Supreme Court had contradiction in his
document and we lost it.
“So, the screening is not a formality and we expect you to be very
meticulous in every material in particular to protect our party so that
let it not be said that we did not learn anything from Bayelsa.
“As you know, sometimes, when things go wrong, everybody sees it that
the National Working Committee (NWC) did not do a thorough job,”
Oshiomhole said.
According to him, the leadership takes the blame if anything go wrong.
“For me, the important lesson is that we take steps to correct any mistakes we may have made in the past.
“So, we will give you copies of our party Constitution. This
constitution is the basis of our action. We will make it available to
you.
“We will also make the guidelines available to you, that have been developed for the purpose of conducting primaries.
“So, I trust that giving your calibre, that you will help the party to
do a thorough job, so as to protect us as an institution from any
possible judicial reversal of anything arising from the process,” he
said.
The screening committee headed by Prof. Jonathan Ayuba would screen the
six governorship aspirants of the party before the primaries, while the
appeal committee headed by Prof. Abubakar Fari, was expected to handle
appeals or disagreements arising from the primaries.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the screening of the
aspirants will take place at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja
between June 10 and June 11, while the appeal committee will begin
sitting on June 12.
The aspirants included -Godwin Obaseki, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Mr
Osaro Obaz, Dr Pius Odubu, Mr Matthew Iduoriyekemwe and Mr Chris
Ogiemwonyi.(NAN)