Embattled Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State ploy to stop his top contender, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu on Thursday kissed the dust again following the adjournment of sitting on his frivolous motion requesting the restraining of the APC from conducting its primary and screening Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu by the High Court in Benin City.
The embattled governor caused tension in the state today with the blockage mounted by his thugs and other security officials meant to bar journalists from gaining entrance into the court premises, an action said to be meant to intimidate the members of the judiciary into granting him a favorable order.
This however failed like his previous attempts when the High Court adjourned sitting until June 17. Godwin Obaseki is challenging the membership of Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu in the All Progressives Congress, a concern that has been dismissed by the leadership of the party at the state and national level.
The governor, aware of his unpopularity and likely defeat to Pastor Ize-Iyamu at the party’s internal primary set for June 22, is desperate to use the courts, and other organs of state, to rig the process in his favor.
This particular case was moved to the High Court in Benin City after it was discovered that Justice Vestie Eboriem of the Abudu High Court where it was initially lodged had allegedly met and obtained inducement from Barrister Osarodion Ogie, the SSG, to try the case secretly and grant an ex-parte order that would have prevented the primary from holding.