Dons to screen certificates of Obaseki, five others

• Resolution of Edo crisis coming, says Osunbor
Ahead of the Edo governorship primary, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has hired a team of university teachers, led by Professor Jonathan Ayuba, to screen the certificates of Governor Godwin Obaseki and five others aspiring for the ticket to contest the September 19, 2020 poll in the state.

The other aspirants are Osagie Ize-Iyamu; Pius Odubu; Chris Ogiemwonyi; Osaro Obazee and Matthew Aigbuhuenze Iduoriyekemwen.

Ayuba, who is leading six more dons, has tomorrow to submit their report.

Those executing the onerous task with him are Prof. Agbo Madaki; Forte Dike; Dr. Rabe Nasir (secretary); Ibrahim Zailani; Dr Jane-Frances Agbu and Senator Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed Binanu.

A six-member appeal committee to review their findings is made up of Abubakar Fari; Sadeeque Abba (chairman); Gbenga Olubajo; Mohammed Idris; Esther Bepeh, and Daniel Bwala (secretary).

APC’s National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who inaugurated the committees in Abuja, said the move was to ensure due diligence and avert the Bayelsa scenario.

He charged: “I want to encourage you to take this exercise very seriously. I am sure you can only imagine how we felt as a party when after we had won an election in Bayelsa State, but later lost it because the deputy governor, according to the Supreme Court, had contradictions in his documents.

“So, the screening is not a formality, and we expect you to be very meticulous. Let it not be said that we did not learn anything from Bayelsa.”

However, Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, has expressed strong faith in the integrity of the documents submitted by his principal.

In a statement in Benin City, Osagie said the governor “duly earned his certificates from the different educational institutions he attended and anyone raising issues about them is only being mischievous.”

Moreover, former governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, has hinted that the crisis bedeviling the state chapter of the APC would be resolved amicably.

In a telephone chat, Osunbor implored the feuding parties to exercise restraint and demonstrate loyalty to the party.

The ex-governor noted that the major actors, especially the Chief Bisi Akande-led National Reconciliation Committee, have the next 12 days to put out the fire and save the political grouping from “imminent helplessness” after the governorship primary on June 22.

Recalling his recent public outcry, Osunbor reiterated that it would “be extremely risky and ill-advised for the party to conduct its primary, let alone going into the governorship election bitterly divided.”