ABUJA – The three-member Appeal Committee for the June 18, 2016 Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) Governorship Primary Election on Wednesday submitted its report at the Party’s National Secretariat in Abuja.
The Election Appeal Committee is chaired by Hon. Opeyemi Bamidele, a former member of the House of Representatives. Other members are: Alh. Mustapha Salisu and Mrs. Ekwy Onyido.
Bamidele who submitted the report on behalf of the Committee stated: “On behalf of our committee, I thank you for the opportunity to add value in our own little way and also assure you that we have tried our best in good conscience and in good faith to ensure that we are able to do what we needed to do and put a report together for the National Working Committee (NWC) that gave us an assignment. As to the content of the report, recommendations and conclusion drawn, we will hear further from the Party. I am not in a position to speak to that.
“All the petitioners appeared before our committee, we gave them the latitude to even bring their agents. Up till yesterday (Tuesday), they (petitioners) kept updating documentation and we were not closed to them at any point. We kept receiving material and considering such materials. We appreciate the fact that officials of the Party, who we invited, came to appear before our committee to clarify positions and at every time we insisted on seeing certain materials, they also made them available without which our job would have been extremely difficult.
“You did not just give us an assignment, you gave us free hand to carry out the assignment. The only time I heard from the National Chairman since the day of our inauguration was at 1.30am (Monday) when he replied my text in a few words saying it was okay to present the report at 1pm.
The APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun who received the Committee’s report thanked the Bamidele-led three-member Edo State governorship Election Appeal Committee for successfully carrying out its assignment and submitting a report.
Odigie-Oyegun stated: “We gave you an assignment and as you also said, we gave you a free hand to do that assignment. I am pleased by the fact that you decided to do a thorough job. I am pleased because of the unfortunate level of sensitivity of the primary situation in Edo state. It was necessary that you had the freedom to do whatever you needed to do, see whoever you needed to see and have access to whatever documentation that was available for you to examine.
“Like we took trouble to lay out the primaries so that the whole world can see the conduct of the primaries, it was also necessary for you to have the freedom and the access to whatever materials you needed to see. It is my hope that at the end of the day this report will enable us (NWC) in the next few days lay to rest finally the primary exercise that took place in Edo state so we can proceed with the essential task of trying to win an election.”
