The governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin on Tuesday announced his exit from All Progressives Congress (APC).
The governor announced his resignation after conferring with President Muhammadu Buhari Obaseki at the Presidential Villa in Abuja.
Although Obaseki did not disclose his next move, he however said he would, in the next few days, announce “specific line of action” and the party he would join.
Earlier, Obaseki said the forthcoming governorship election in his state would determine if incumbency would be a factor for him or not in the election.
“Let us go to the polls and Nigerians will see,” he said in response to a statement credited to the chairman of the APC, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole that incumbency is not a factor that would work for him (Obaseki) in the election.
It would be recalled that on June 12, the party’s screening committee barred Obaseki from contesting the June 22 primary of the APC for the Edo State governorship for allegedly possessing questionable academic credentials.
Following his disqualification, Obaseki vowed not to contest the verdict of the screening committee.
Reacting to his disqualification, Obaseki said he will not appeal the decision.
He has since looked in the direction of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the south-south for support.
Last Sunday, he met with the governor of Rivers and Akwa Ibom states, Messrs Nyesom Wike and Udom Emmanuel respectively.
Speaking on why he visited the two PDP governors, Obaseki said: “These are my brother governors who are from my sub-region, some of them have gone through similar experience I’m going through,” the governor said. “It’s only proper that when you have challenges of this nature you’ll go and talk to people who have gone through similar experience for advice.
“That’s basically what I went to do with them.”
He also spoke on the controversy surrounding his certificates saying: “Someone who hasn’t gone to school, who doesn’t have a certificate himself, will not know and understand what inconsistencies in certificates are, that’s the starting point.
“What is the inconsistency? There’s no inconsistency in my certificates. The issue was in 2016, when I contested for gubernatorial election, I could not find the originals of my certificates because I hadn’t required them for more than two decades. 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’s inconsistent about that.
“Maybe the inconsistency in the Youths Corps certificate where he said my surname was missing an ‘i’ at the end, 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.”
