Edo Guber: Obaseki wielding Covid-19 guidelines to battle INEC, Oshiomhole, APC over direct primary

Adams Oshiomhole may write all he likes to INEC, Edo will adopt the indirect primary as it follows the guidelines by the President Task Force on Covid-19 in conducting the party’s guber primary coming up June 22.

Edo’s Gov Godwin Obaseki stated this through his media aide Crusoe Osagie following the recent recognition of direct primary his party national chairman  Oshiomhole recommended to the electoral umpire as the mode for the party’s primary.

INEC’s rules state that a party’s national headquarters determine the mode f election a state chapter will adopt for its primary election. The party headquarters seems comfortable with that too.

But Obaseki is merely depending on an executive order outside of Nigeria’s electoral cookbook to make his point.

Osagie said that going by the safety rules outlined by the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, only indirect primary is appropriate for the state at this time.

Oshiomhole and Obaseki, both party men at war politically, are mutually suspecting each other in deciding what mode the party’s primary will take.

And both, many believe, have a lot at stakes in the election. Obaseki is seeking re-election against the whim of his godfather and predecessor Oshiomole who candidate is a JJC from the PDP.