Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, said on Saturday the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship election screening was fair and professionally conducted.
Obaseki who arrived at the National Secretariat of the PDP at 2:50 p.m., told journalists that contrary to claims of discrepancies in his certificates, he presented same to the PDP screening committee without any issue raised by the panel.
The governor’s statement was an indication that he had been cleared by the PDP screening panel to participate in next Thursday’s governorship primaries in Edo State.
He also thanked governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for their support and solidarity, saying he enjoyed support across the country.
The APC screening panel had last Friday disqualified the governor from June 22 governorship primaries in Edo State over alleged contradictions in his university and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates.
The development forced Obaseki to leave the APC for PDP on Friday.
READ ALSO: EDO: Obaseki arrives in PDP secretariat for governorship screening
The governor said:
“The screening was fair, it was very professionally done. You could see objectivity and I presented all my certificates- my secondary school, higher school, university, and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) certificates so that they can look at them and see if there are inconsistencies in them. You can ask the screening committee if there are any inconsistencies in any of them.
“I thank God that I enjoy national support not just from my colleagues from the APC. I think the support is national. There are elder statesmen who are apolitical, there are traditional rulers. I have people from different spectrum of the society who come around to support. Generally, I think Nigerians are generally fair-minded people. They are people who do not accept injustice. From what I have seen over the past several weeks and months, the support is just across board. It is not just from APC governors alone.
“I am not a dividing candidate. I am speaking with all the aspirants. My hope and purpose for the PDP is to have a united and very strong party.
“Party primaries should not be divisive because we as a party are focused on the same objective and because we are separate individuals, our approaches may be different. Therefore, party primaries in my view should not be acrimonious and destructive. And there are common grounds, common interest and I am very very hopeful that I will get it even as there are quite a number of delegates for the exercise.”
Other aspirants that had been cleared for Thursday’s governorship primaries are Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, Engr, Gideon Ikhine, and Mr. Kenneth Imansuangbon.
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