JUST IN: Edo Guber: Court refuses to bar Obaseki from participating in PDP primaries

Governor Godwin Obaseki 

A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, has refused to bar Godwin Obaseki, the Edo State Governor, from participating in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election slated for Thursday.

Mr Obaseki was granted waiver by the PDP recently after he joined the opposition party from the All Progressives Congress (APC).


The suit was instituted by one of the governorship aspirants of the PDP, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, who had vowed not to step down for Mr Obaseki.

A major reason stated by Mr Ogbeide-Ihama was that Mr Obaseki recently joined the party and only those who purchased the forms during the stipulated window should be allowed to participate in the primary election.

Just like Mr Obaseki’s former party, the APC, Mr Ogbeide-Ihama also questioned his educational credentials.




Mr Ogbeide-Ihama also prayed that the primaries be put on hold pending when the court would hear the motion on notice.

The judge, E. A Obile, however, did not grant that prayer. The judge asked that the motion seeking to bar Mr Obaseki be served on the defendants including Mr Obaseki via newspaper publication. Premium Times reports


Meanwhile, Governor Godwin Obaseki had described the earlier interim injunction restraining him from contesting the primary of the Peoples Democratic Party as an attempt by fifth columnists to destabilise the party.

The Governor who spoke through his Media Adviser, Crusoe Osagie, in a telephone interview, on Tuesday, noted that opponents of the PDP were already jittery about the overwhelming support the party was receiving from the people.

He said, “The court order was obtained last night. Our opponents outside the party are trying to use fifth columnists within us to replicate the chaos in their party.



“They are worried about the popularity and acceptance of the PDP and our amiable Governor so much so that they have become desperate in their quest to stop a contest they know they will lose.”