Obaseki asks Oshimhole to stay away from Edo guber primary

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, Wednesday asked the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, to stay away from the party’s governorship primary in Edo State because he was an interested party.

APC will hold its governorship primary in Edo on June 22.

Obaseki, who disclosed this to journalists after submitting his expression of interest and nomination forms at the APC National Secretariat in Abuja, said he and his colleagues had visited the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Ahmed Tinubu, as part of efforts to strengthen the party and reassure him that they were committed to building the party.

The governor added that it was “wrong for any human to try to play God.”

He expressed confidence that he would secure the APC governorship ticket regardless of the mode chosen for the exercise in Edo.

Obaseki also dismissed claims that he purchased the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship nomination forms, saying he was “a party man to the core.”

He said: “It is against natural justice for a man to be a judge in his own case.”

“For me and my colleague – Governors, we can’t see the party we are building destroyed. We should all drop our egos and work for our party.”

Obaseki and Oshiomhole have been engulfed in a protracted feud over control of party machinery in Edo State.

A Federal High Court, Abuja, had on Monday stopped the Edo State government from arresting and prosecuting the former governor for alleged fraud in the construction of the state specialist hospital during his tenure.

On their part, Oshiomhole and the party National Working Committee (NWC) had insisted on a direct governorship primary in the state.