The All Progressive Congress (APC) on Tuesday inaugurated screening and appeal committees for its Edo governorship aspirants.
During the inauguration of the committees in Abuja, the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole expressed his doubt over the originality of the certificate of the current governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
While expressing his doubt over Obaseki’s University of Ibadan certificate, the national chairman directed the screening committee to confirm the authenticity of the certificate from the premier university.
In his statement, “Someone should approach the UI and end this matter once and for all. If the certificate Obaseki parades is that of the UI, find out how did he pass senate screening of those days? I’m aware that in those days when this man never dreamt of becoming a governor, every student, no matter your status or your family name, must pass screening.
“It is done every third term at the UNN (University of Nigeria Nsukka), then we ran terminal not semester programme. The final screening was in the third year, before you go in for your final year.
“How comes the UI allowed him then. Did he do a remedial? which was not unlikely. These are questions. Many came in especially in education and linguistics, did remedial for one year and if the result was good, gained direct entry and graduated three years after.’’
Oshiomhole also expressed that the APC had learnt bitter lessons from the sad experience the party went through after winning the Bayelsa State governorship election and the party lost at the Supreme court on account of the submission of a questionable academic credential by the deputy governorship candidate.
He then charged members of the two committees to ensure that they conducted due diligence on all claims contained in the documents submitted by all the six aspirants who are seeking to contest in the primary.
He said, “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 it would not be said that we did not learn anything from Bayelsa. As you know sometimes when things go wrong, everybody sees it that NWC did not do a thorough job. So, people personalized it. They say, ‘If the chairman is thorough, if he has done his job this will not happen but that is the price for leadership.”
He urged the screening committee to interact with all the contestants in the Edo State governorship poll.
He noted that, if anybody is dissatisfied with the screening committee’s recommendations, he or she will file an appeal and it will be forwarded to the appeal committee.
Members of the committee were drawn from the academia and party’s team of legal professionals. See the list below:
Members APC Screening Committee for Edo Governorship Aspirants
- Prof. Jonathan Ayuba (Chairman)
- Prof. Agbo Madaki
- Hon. Ibrahim Zailani
- Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed “Binani”
- Dr. Jane-Frances Agbu
- Hon. Fort Dike
- Dr. Rabe Nasir (Secretary)
Appeal Committee
- Prof. Sadeeque Abba (Chairman)
- Barr. Gbenga Olubajo
- Mohammed Idris
- Dr. Abubakar Fari
- Esther Bepeh
- Barr. Daniel Bwala (Secretary)
