Direct primary: Obaseki seeks Buhari’s intervention …meets with President in Aso Rock

Saheed Ojubanire

State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Monday, sought the intervention of President Muhammadu Buhari in the worsening conflict between him and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole over his second term bid.

Obaseki’s visit to the President is coming ahead of the APC governorship primary election scheduled to hold this month.

As at the time of filing this report, the meeting between the Edo governor and President Buhari was still ongoing.

Sources said that the governor’s meeting with the President was not unconnected with the direct primary adopted by the party for the governorship primary in Edo State.

Already, some APC state governors have thrown their weight behind Obaseki.

On Sunday, some of the APC governors held a closed door meeting with the party’s National Leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, over the crisis rocking the party in Edo State and the forthcoming governorship primary.

Both Obaseki and his predecessor, Oshiomhole, have been at loggerheads over disagreements arising from the governor’s second term ambition, resulting in the factionalisation of the ruling APC in Edo.

Only last week, Oshiomhole’s faction of the party in the state picked Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, as its consensus candidate for the June 22 governorship primary election.

With this development, Ize-Iyamu, seen as the Oshiomhole’s anointed candidate, will now contest for the APC governorship ticket at the primary with the incumbent Governor Obaseki.

Ize-Iyamu contested the governorship in 2016 against Obaseki on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party and only returned to the APC last December.

Our correspondent, however, gathered that the governors backing Obaseki have vowed to ensure that the Edo governor emerges the APC standard bearer, regardless of the mode of election adopted at the primary and goes ahead to win the gubernatorial election in September.

It was learnt that they have said that they would not allow Obaseki to suffer the same fate that saw the immediate past governor of Lagos, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode being denied a second term in the run-up to the 2019 general elections.

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