A twist to the ongoing supremacy struggle between the two strong men of Edo State politics, Adams Oshiomole and Godwin Obaseki, has occurred in a reportedly busted plot to pick governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) through the back door.
A yet to be confirmed statement available to The DEFENDER said in what appears to be a major blooper, result of the yet-to-be-organised Edo APC primary election has surfaced online.
The primary election, scheduled to hold on June 22, would determine the candidate of the APC in the gubernatorial election billed to hold in September 2020.
In the result, according to the statement, “the preferred candidate of the National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who the proscribed Edo Peoples Movement (EPM) picked as their consensus candidate few weeks ago, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, polled 101,533 votes, to allegedly pick the APC ticket. Former Chairman of Oredo Local Government Area, Osaro Obazee, came second with 81,173, while the incumbent governor scored 79,861.
“The result, said to have been compiled by Comrade Oshiomhole, exposes the end result of his scheming for months. These include the arbitrary notification of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) of the mode of primary even before a meeting was held to make a decision on the matter.
“Oshiomhole, usurping the powers of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC), purportedly moved the state secretariat of the APC in Edo State, to a new location, in violation of Article 8 of the APC constitution.”
Although not confirmed, this statement was not denied through any known medium as at the time of filing this report.
However, Oshiomole’s stories have in recent times dominated the media airspace particularly the traditional, digital and social media as his supporters and other not-directly-connected individuals who are mainly Facebook fighters in support of the APC chairman.
Among posers to knock down his erstwhile godson in Governor Godwin Obaseki was the manner he handled the issue of the primaries, which enjoyed popular support in social media with those in favour raining unprinted words in the governor.
It will be recalled that Oshiomole was said to have transmitted a letter to Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) communicating the mode of governorship primaries the party chose, three days before the statutory meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC).
He reportedly said on an occasion that the NWC transited the letter to INEC when it became clear that Obaseki did not notify him about his preference for indirect primary election, which necessitated his option for direct primary.
But, armed with yet to be denied documents and statements, he Edo State APC said the national chairman lied because one, it is not the business of the governor to notify the national Secretariat but that of the party’s state executive or chairman, which it said was done.
The Edo APC then unleashed the damning revelations that exposed Oshiomole as having written the letter to INEC even three days before the NWC met, meaning that he acted either alone or treated a ruling party affair as a private estate matter, it was said.
There have been other powers deployed to bring down Obaseki, the Edo State’s most powerful man as of present which included the “unnecessary” exposition of certificates issue and court suit questing the authenticity of the governor’s certificates he presented to be elected.
The governor however appears to be on top of the situation as, by the official gazette he has done, there will be no lawful mode of primary election not even by APC but other political parties in the state except the indirect primary election.
