No direct primary: Obaseki draws battle lines with INEC, Oshiomhole

Ahead of the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Edo, Governor Godwin Obaseki has insisted that the indirect primary mode is what the state will adopt.

Governor Obaseki, through his special adviser on media and communication strategy, Crusoe 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, PM News reports.

Osagie added that the governor’s position is backed by the rule of the PTF which pointed out that governors “should manage the pandemic through measures unique to their states.”

The media aide added that his principal had ordered that political conventions for the purpose of conducting primaries for parties desiring to field candidates for the poll must be held at a particular venue in Benin and not be more than 5,000 persons who will be provided with sanitary items.

Osagie, in reaction to the call for direct primary mode to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) by Adams Oshiomhole, said that the APC’s national chairman’s move is inconsequential to the decision of the state government and what will finally play out.

The aide said: “He can write, and the fact that he wrote doesn’t mean that is what is going to happen. The rules have to be followed.”

On his part, INEC’s commissioner, Festus Okoye, said that going by the fact that the commission only allows communication between itself and the national secretary of political parties, the decision of the APC chairman still stands.