Being a sitting governor doesn’t guarantee victory, Oshiomhole tells Obaseki

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Monday said even if the Governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki decamped to the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), it would still not guarantee his victory at the polls.

Oshiomhole stated this while fielding questions from State House correspondents at the end of a meeting between the APC National Working Committee (NWC) and the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

On the speculation that Governor Obaseki would defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following his disqualification from the APC governorship primaries, Oshiomhole said: “All those who decamped with Saraki lost. Those who did not decamp, Bauchi and Adamawa sitting governors lost too.

“Even Governor Kayode Fayemi, as a sitting governor, was defeated by (Ayodele) Fayose. So there is no evidence that being a sitting governor guarantees you victory, it all depends on the local sentiments in the state.

“I think we need to get away from this fixation. Whether in America, Britain or in Nigeria, there are plethora of cases where sitting governors lost, sitting senators lost, sitting Reps lost. There is no guarantee that if you field somebody because he has incumbency you will win. Incumbency also has its liability, depending on the sentiment of the people of the state.”

“We have gone a long way with the primaries. We have advertised the timetable, there was the stage of collection of forms, and about six people collected forms. In that time table, we also provided for screening and we also provided for appeals arising from the screening.

“This is standard practice that the NWC has adopted since 2015 and in the case of Edo, we have completed the process of selling forms, we have also completed the process of screening. We have completed the process of appeals arising from the screening by those who wish to take advantage and the NWC has met and has reviewed the report of the screening committee.

“And we were unanimous that the screening was thoroughly done and found that three people were eligible to contest, with regard to the provisions of our constitution.”

It would be recalled that the APC screening committee had last Friday disqualified Obaseki from next week’s governorship primaries in Edo State over alleged discrepancies in his certificates with the party.