Edo APC seeks arrest, quarantine of mock guber primary participants

The Edo chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has vowed to see to the arrest and quarantine of all the four aspirants of a faction of the party in the by the relevant health authorities after holding a mock gubernatorial primary in alleged violation of government’s social distancing order to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus in the state.

Addressing journalists yesterday in Benin City, the state party publicity secretary of the party, Joseph Osagiede, added that the ruling party had contacted the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to search for the participants and isolate them accordingly for “defying government’s regulations on public gathering of more than 20 persons in the state during the botched mock primary of the Edo Peoples Movement (EPM).”

Osagiede went on: “The information did not reach us in time that there was such a gathering. By the time the information got to us, they have started fighting within themselves and that was what led to their dispersing.

“We have since informed the NCDC, whose responsibility it is to arrest, quarantine and isolate them to determine if they are safe to be in the society.”

Describing the quartet’s statement in a national daily that Governor Godwin Obaseki had merely scratched the surface and played to the gallery in his effort at fighting the COVID-19 scourge as mischievous, the spokesman stated: “Edo State is the flagship in the fight against the pandemic.

“Unfortunately, EPM members are too blind to see this Governor Obaseki’s management of the pandemic, his well-articulated and structured lockdown and curfew management that has become a national model.”

Meanwhile, in response to the plight of the locals over the lockdown occasioned by the novel coronavirus in Delta State, Abanje Farms yesterday supported indigent and vulnerable persons in its host community as well as members of Emu School Leavers Farm with food items.

Its Administration Manager, Michael Nezianya, who spoke during the donation, stated that the gesture was indicative of the future relationship between the company and the group.

He said the ravaging pestilence had brought to fore the humane side of humanity globally.His words: “On a daily basis, we see and hear of palliatives being given by individuals and corporate organisations to the vulnerable and the needy in spite of the fact that these donors are not exempted from the harsh economic situations precipitated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Giving out palliatives in this crisis situation is not a function of how much one has, but rather the humane nature in people and fulfillment of the biblical injuction of being a brother’s keeper in times of adversity.”