Certificate of Returns: Decision Taken In Hurry, Says Ugbomeh
By The9JaTREND
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate representing Edo North Senatorial District, Barr. Pascal Ugbome, said the presentation of Certificate of Returns to the 36 National and State legislative assemblies by the Governor Godwin Obaseki’s faction was a decision taken in a hurry.
Barr. Ugbome, who emerged the senatorial candidate of the Dan Orbih led faction of the party made the remarks while reacting to the issuance of Certificate of Returns to candidates of the factional members of the party in Benin City.
Recall, that on the,31st August, 2022, the State chairman of the party, Dr. Tony Aziegbemi presented Certificate of Returns to 24 House of Assembly Candidates, 9 House of Representatives candidates and 3 Senatorial Candidates that emerged at the primaries elections conducted by the Governor Obaseki led faction of the party.
Barr. Ugbomeh said the members of the party who are laying claim as the authentic candidates for the various elective positions should wait for the outcome of the supreme court instead of being in a hurry to issue and receive Certificate of Returns.
“Ordinarily, what happened on Wednesday should not attract the attention of a serious minded persons but then, this is politics people can get carried away by things that are never supposed to get them excited.
“The interesting thing is that, we are in court and some of the processes were instituted mostly by the (Obaseki’s faction) and we (Dan Orbih faction) also instituted some of the processes and as we talk now, there is no basis for what they did.
“It is even contemptuous of the judicial process but one is not perturbed because when people are desperate, they can do anything, they can go to any length to make themselves feel happy.
“It is an attempt for them to also continue to hold onto their supporters who have already known that they holding onto the straw.
“One of the matters has gone to the Supreme Court and one wonders why they can’t wait for the process to run its course. And, looking at the documentation, I saw that the document was signed on the 6th of June thereabouts by the national chairman and other necessary officers and that same 30th of June, the same national officers signed the letter in compliance with Court order telling INEC that we are the authentic candidates”, he said.
While reacting to his own candidacy, Barr. Ugbomeh said his own case was peculiar and worrisome because his own position was superimposed with a candidate who was in the All Progressives Congress but cross-carpeted to the PDP in the eleventh hour.
“I have a situation of an attempt to supplant popular mandate that I got by PDP delegates. I am dealing with an APC man. By the time they were gifting him with my ticket, he was in APC.
“It is just totally incongruous with the situation we are having in our hands. As a human being, I don’t see why I should be desperate”, he said.
He opined that whatever is happening in the party at the moment will helps to deepen democracy and that it is bound to happen.
He said at the end, it is the court that will determine who are the real candidates of the party and those who are not.
He warned the party not to take the grace of God for granted but should do all it could to put its house together and face the main opposition party (APC) in the state in order to win all the seats in the forthcoming elections.
