INEC backs APC’s NWC on Edo Primaries, Obaseki loses

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has thrown its weight behind the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress over the modality to adopt for the Edo State governorship primary slated for June 22.

The NWC led by Adams Oshiomhole, who is the APC national chairman has approved direct primary to choose the party’s candidate in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the state.

Oshiomhole conveyed the party’s decision to INEC in a letter dated May 19.

But the governor, on the other hand, suspecting a plot to deny him a second term in office, kicked.

He insisted that he would not allow direct primary method to be used for the primaries. Rather, he prefers the indirect selection method.

To achieve his objective, Obaseki, in a gazette signed on May 28 and published on Friday, banned political gatherings that could make direct primary possible in the state.

State chairman of the party, Anselm Ojezua, a supporter of the governor, said the party’s State Working Committee had chosen indirect primary.

He added that the National Executive Council of the party had said each state was at liberty to adopt any method of preference.

However INEC has said it will only honour the mode of primary submitted to it by the national chairman of the party.

INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Festus Okoye, said in Abuja that the commission’s rules, regulations and laws allowed it to only relate with the national chairman and national secretary of political parties.

Okoye said that, regardless of what was happening in state branches of parties, the commission was bound to recognise the date, venue and mode of primary submitted to it by the two national officers.

The governorship election is slated for 19 September 2020.