President Bola Tinubu has appealed to members of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Edo State to select the best qualified candidate as the flag bearer of the party for the forthcoming governorship election in the State.
Senator representing Edo North Senatorial District, Adams Oshiomhole disclosed this to State House Correspondents after he met behind closed doors with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
He says: “It is true I just saw the President and it is about the Edo APC governorship primaries. I am sure by now you know that the APC National Working Committee had reasons to review the governorship primary election that was conducted last week due to controversies arising from that exercise.
“So as a party member and APC leader in the State, I came to discuss some of the issues that I think are relevant and also in order to ensure that the APC family in Edo State conduct themselves in a manner that the President will be proud of the outcome of the primaries because after the primary, we shall face the main election.”
Oshiomhole, who is a former Governor of Edo State, stressed that President Tinubu cautioned against any act that will jeopardise the process of selecting a candidate.
“The President has affirmed that he has no voting right in Edo State even though Edo have the right to vote for the President and therefore, what matters to him is to ensure that APC members in Edo State, in a direct primaries, participate in a free and fair primaries. That is the decision of the President.
“There have been rumours in the air that there is probably zoning to one area or the other but the President said as far as he is concerned, he is committed only to free and fair primaries; not based on zoning because you don’t do zoning on the eve of a primary election,” Oshiomhole explained.
Oshiomhole further stated that at the beginning of the process, all interested and qualified candidates were allowed to pick nomination forms, not based on any zoning formular.
“If you are zoning, you will not allow people who are not from the particular zone to procure forms. It is on record that the National Secretariat of the party issued a statement to the effect that the APC governorship ticket was open to anyone who is eligible to procure the nomination form and that was why at the end of the day we have 12 aspirants that procured the forms.
“So the key issue in my conversation with the President is that the primaries that had been rescheduled for tomorrow is not based on zoning and will not be based on zoning but will be based on free and fair primaries,” he stressed.
Oshiomhole also said he had the authority of the President to address the media on the matter because of the various lies and half-truths being peddled around.
Confidence Okwuchi
