Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has reacted to the report that Governor Godwin Obaseki has rejected direct primary for the coming governorship election in Edo State.
Oshiomhole said the APC had not received any official letter from the Governor rejecting direct mode of primary adopted by the party’s National Working Committee (NWC).
The former labour leader said this yesterday while fielding questions from reporters at the end of a closed-door meeting with some APC governors.
The former Governor of Edo State also said that the governors elected on the APC platform had agreed to support the winner of the forthcoming gubernatorial primary election.
Asked to specifically react to the reports that the Edo State Governor, who is seeking a second term on the party’s platform, had rejected the direct mode of primary, Oshiomhole said, “I don’t have any letter or document to that effect. These are very formal matters.
“We have since published our time-table because under the law, we are required to give INEC at least, 21 days notice to monitor our primaries and to state the mode of our primaries.
“And of course, the NWC had approved direct primaries for Edo. That of Ondo has not been discussed because that will come much later, because Edo will come about three weeks before Ondo.”
Oshiomhole informed that the NWC have started the sale of forms to aspirants, adding that as at last Friday, three people had picked the forms. He said more people bought the Edo State governorship forms on Monday.
“So, we’re selling forms to all those who wish to buy based on the guidelines and of course, as the Chairman of the Progressives Governors rightly said, we have ensured in our letter to INEC and even this (Monday) morning, we had a virtual meeting with INEC leadership,” he added.
The APC national chairman insisted that primaries will be conducted taking into account the protocols on COVID-19 by the Presidential Task Force, PTF, on coronavirus and the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC, adding,”I think everything has been going fine.”
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