A Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt, Rivers State has stopped the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki from participating in the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) governorship primary in the state.
Obaseki who recently joined the party from the ruling All Progressive Congress, (APC) gets a waiver from the party’s leadership and is expected to participate in the party’s primary scheduled for Thursday, June 25, 2020.
According to the court documents, which were made available to The West African Pilot News, the suit was instituted by one of the governorship aspirants of the PDP, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama. Ogbeide-Ihama had earlier vowed never to step down for Obaseki.
In the documents, he prayed the court to stop Obaseki from participating in the primary for several reasons.
One of the reasons for Ogbeide-Ihama was that Obaseki recently joined the party and that only those who purchased the forms during the stipulated window before the waiver was granted to Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, should be allowed to participate in the primaries.
Also, Ogbeide-Ihama questioned the validity of Obaseki’s certificates.
The leadership of the PDP has scheduled the party’s primary for June 25, while the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled the governorship election for September 19, 2020.
