APC inaugurates screening, appeal committees for Edo guber primaries

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday inaugurated the screening and appeal committees for the June 22 governorship primaries in Edo State.

The party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, who inaugurated the committees at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, urged the panels to do a thorough job.

He said: “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, the 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.”

The ex-Edo State governor said the party leadership takes the blame if anything goes wrong.

Oshiomhole added:

“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.”

The screening committee headed by Prof. Jonathan Ayuba would screen the party’s six governorship aspirants before the primaries while the appeal committee headed by Prof. Abubakar Fari was expected to handle appeals or disagreements arising from the primaries.

The screening of the aspirants will take place at the party secretariat between June 10 and June 11, while the appeal committee will begin sitting on June 12.

The six aspirants are Godwin Obaseki, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Mr. Osaro Obaz, Dr. Pius Odubu, Mr. Matthew Iduoriyekemwe, and Mr. Chris Ogiemwonyi.