The All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) primary election to select its governorship candidate for the September 22 gubernatorial poll in Edo State has commenced.
The party in a terse statement on Monday on its official Twitter handle, @APCNigeria, said the primaries were going on simultaneously in all 192 wards in the state.
“Primaries going on simultaneously in all 192 wards in Edo state. The Progressives are going about the primaries in a peaceful and orderly manner. Weldone Edo APC,” the APC wrote.
The APC, which lost its leadership in Edo last week, following Governor Godwin Obaseki’s defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), is holding the primary amid the state government’s threats to enforce the COVID-19 guidelines on all political gatherings in the state.
Governor Obaseki in a statement on Sunday had said that all political parties holding primaries in Edo State had notified the government of their readiness to comply with the state’s COVID-19 guidelines, but that the APC was yet to do so.
But the APC, through the secretary of its Primary Election Committee for Edo State, Senator Ajibola Bashiru, replied that the party did not need Obaseki’s approval to hold its governorship primaries in the state.