The aspirants for Edo State governorship party ticket under the flagship of the All Progressives Congress (APC), will appear before a panel raised to screen them.
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Dr Pius Odubu, Chris Ogiemwonyi, Osaro Obazee, and Matthew Iduoriyenkemwen, are those jostling for the party’s sole ticket.
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Reports revealed that a seven-man committee was inaugurated at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja on Tuesday to screen the aspirants on Wednesday and Thursday.
Also, a six-member Appeal Committee to hear the petitions of aggrieved aspirants after the screening was inaugurated.
The APC, however, said it’s National Working Committee (NWC) remains the final ground for eligible aspirants seeking the ticket ahead of the primary slated for June 22.
Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the APC, who inaugurated the committees, said the party invited the “wise men and women” to assist it in screening aspirants to avoid the Bayelsa State experience.
The party chair said:
After intensive consultations, we decided to have people who in our own judgment are sound and when they go through this process, their recommendations will be very helpful. Under our rules, we are expected to set up a screening committee before every election.
The responsibility of the screening committee is to interact with all those who have aspirations to contest, strictly speaking, not yet aspirants. You become an aspirant after the screening committee has passed you.
If anybody is dissatisfied with the screening committee’s recommendation, he/she will file an appeal and it will be forwarded to the Appeals Committee and after that, they will make a final recommendation to the National Working Committee (NWC) that has the final decision as to who is eligible or who is not eligible.
In the past, we had always performed this role but maybe we did not give it the appropriate weight. May be we had assumed that people who want to aspire to certain offices, particularly high elective offices of executive governor, won’t submit documents containing information that may possibly lead to disqualification.
In the past, this was more of a formality but with what happened to us in Bayelsa earlier this year, we decided to approach the issue of screening much more seriously than ever before.
The screening committee, chaired by Prof. Jonathan Ayuba, has Dr Rabe Nasir as Secretary while members are Prof. Agbo Madaki, Hon. Ibrahim Zailani, Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed (Binani), Dr Jane-Frances Agbu and Hon. Fort Dike as members.
Members of the Appeal Committee are Prof. Abubakar Fari (Chairman), Daniel Bwala (Secretary), Prof Sadeeque Abba, Gbenga Olubajo, Mohammed Idris and Esther Bepeh.
