Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, said on Tuesday he quit the All Progressives Congress (APC) because of his disqualification from next week’s governorship primaries in the state.
The APC screening panel had last Friday disqualified the governor from the June 22 governorship primaries in Edo over alleged discrepancies in his certificates.
The APC National Working Committee (NWC) had also upheld the panel’s decision to disqualify Obaseki from the governorship primaries.
However, in a chat with State House correspondents after he met with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, he blamed the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, for his ordeal.
The duo have been having a running battle over control of party’s lever in the state.
When asked if there were indeed inconsistencies in his certificates, the governor simply said:
“Someone who hasn’t gone to school, who doesn’t have certificate himself, will not know and understand what inconsistencies in certificates are. That is the starting point.
“What is the inconsistency? There is no inconsistency in my certificates. The issue was in 2016 when I contested for the governorship election. I could not find the originals of my certificates because I hadn’t required them for more than two decades.
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“So, I deposed to an affidavit that I couldn’t find the originals. Subsequently, I found all the original copies of all my certificates and they are with me. So I don’t understand what is inconsistent about that.
“Maybe the inconsistency in the National Youth Service Corps certificate where he said an ‘I’ was missing at the end of my surname. But if you look at that, it was like a cursive, it was written in a cursive manner. So, if that’s inconsistency for him, then it’s really sad that people of that quality are leading Nigeria’s ruling party.
“For him, it was just to look for an excuse to take whatever decision he wants to take and it’s really sad that the party structure today gives him that sort of authority without checks. That is dangerous for any system or institution.
“When you give authority and responsibility to people who don’t have character, people who do not have finesse and a sense of justice, then that institution is imperiled.”
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