The Screening Committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the Edo State Governorship primary election has stated its reasons for disqualifying Governor Godwin Obaseki and two other candidates from the APC ticket race.
Governor Obaseki was disqualified alongside Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi and Hon. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen by the Professor Jonathan Ayuba-led Committee.
Prof Ayuba while presenting the report of the committee to the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party on Friday, said were some discrepancies in the names and certificates of the governor.
The committee also cited discrepancies in the names of Ogiemwonyi, while it said Iduoriyekemwen was disqualified on grounds that he instituted a suit against the party without exhausting all mechanisms on conflict resolution of settlement in line with the APC Constitution.
Prof. Ayuba said; “We are staking our integrity. The integrity of the process in this country in order to arrive at what we have done. Mr Chairman, our report is conclusive. Every member signed and has agreed with what we have decided at the committee level. This is essential because we want to be judged by what we have done and what we are presenting.
“We were thorough in the manner in which we conducted the exercise. We recorded live the interaction with each of the aspirants. The unedited clip is what we are giving as part of our report. We want to be judged by what we have done and not by what a third party says or by rumour.
“The methodology we used is clear. It was evidence-based. All we did was an interaction.
“We screened six aspirants. Three were eligible to contest and three were deemed ineligible to participate.
“The first candidate was Mr Osaro Obaze. The committee after screening and the verification of the candidate’s documents found him eligible to contest the primary. Based on the committee’s observation above, the candidate is cleared.
“Engr Chris Osa: The name on all the certificates presented by the aspirants are in contradiction with one another. Also, the sworn declaration of age deposed to by one Capt. Stephen on 3rd June 2016 bore two conflicting names of the aspirant.
“Considering the discrepancy in all the certificates presented and also the difference in the names contained in the sworn affidavit of June 2016, and having regards to the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the Electoral Act, APC Constitution and the party’s guidelines for the nomination of candidates and the reliance on the cases that have been settled by the Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, it is the considered view of the committee that this aspirant does not meet the requirements to participate in the primary election of the APC.
“In view of the findings of the committee above, Engr Chris is not cleared.
“Dr Pius Odubu: The observations are that the name Pius Egberanmwen Precious Odubu appeared on different documents. However, an anomaly was noticed in the affidavit deposed to by his father and our recommendation is the Pius Odubu is eligible to participate in the election.
“Mr Godwin Obaseki: Though, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki in his nomination form claimed to have obtained a Higher School Leaving Certificate from an Institute of Continuing Education, Benin. It was observed however that no educational certificate such as HSC is known in Nigerian educational system. Even then, the same HSC was never presented in the course of the screening exercise. The aspirant admitted that he has never collected it.
“The attestation from the Institute of Continuing Education, Benin from where the alleged HSC which was indicated in the field of attendance as obtained is of no consequence, as it only attests that Obaseki was a student of the Institute. So what we had was like an attendance. It was just attendance, it was not a result.
“Although, the Committee received a petition on his University of Ibadan Bachelor of Arts Classics certificate which he submitted to INEC in 2016 when he first contested as governor, the committee on further probing was presented with an original certificate issued by the University and the original was sighted.
“On the NYSC certificate dated 6th August 1980, the committee observed that he bears the name ‘Obasek’ Godwin. While this may be an error on the part of the issuing authority, we observed however that the aspirant has not taken any step ever to have the anomaly corrected by the issuing authority.
“In our interaction with issues raised, we concluded that HSC was defective. The NYSC certificate and the fact that the aspirant took the party to court, the above aspirant, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, therefore, is not eligible to participate in the election.
“During our interaction which was done live, he informed us that he has instituted a suit against the party and the National Chairman. Yesterday (Friday) we received all the documents of those processes and we had to rely on the party constitution because it is stated clearly that remedies should be carried through party processes. We gave an opportunity for them to give us pieces of evidence to show that this was done and nothing happened.
“The last aspirant we screened was Iduoriyekemwen and our recommendation is that because he has also instituted a case before the court and which he admitted and since the Constitution is clear about such actions, it is the view of the committee that he is not eligible to participate in the exercise”, he said.
With this, the Panel deemed the following eligible to contest the Edo state APC primary; Dr Pius Odubu, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, and Hon Osaro Obaze.
