The immediate past minister of state for budget and national planning and foremost governorship aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Prince Clem Ikanade Agba, has debunked rumour that Professor Julius Ihonvbere-led Screening Committee had pruned down the number of governorship aspirants from six to four.
He said the committee had pruned the number of aspirants jolting for the Party Governorship ticket from 29 to 6 and that he was one of the six aspirants.
Agba put the record straight on Monday evening on Channels TV’s “Politics Today” interview programme .
He empathetically stated that the committee only pruned down the number from 29 to six at two aspirants per each of the three senatorial zones and never, thereafter, convened any meeting with the six aspirants, including himself, to interact with them on the necessity for further screening/pruning
He also dismantled the narrative that the committee had initially pruned down the number of aspirants from twenty-nine to ten, saying there was no time in the sequence of events that the committee reduced the number of aspirants to ten as claimed by another aspirant and former information commissioner in the state, Prince Kassim Afegbua.
Agba said, in response to the presenter’s question, that he did not agree that the number of aspirants was pruned down from twenty-nine to ten, then to six and then four.
According to him: “I do not agree that the number was pruned to four and also, I am not in agreement that it was initially pruned down to ten because I am going to speak on the basis of what we were told and I believe it is the handiwork of mischief makers.
According to him,“on the 13th of January, the leadership of the party in the state invited the aspirants to a meeting in Abuja and they did say that 29 was unwieldy and it would amount to waste of money. That was one reason they felt there was a need to prune down.
“We were all invited to the meeting convened at the instance of the leader of the party in the state, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. The issue was that the number of aspirants should be pruned down and that at the end of it, there was going to be just one candidate and we need to remain as one family.
“Secondly, there is no use wasting money and the aspirants were asked if we all agreed they should do this and there was no one who rejected the suggestion that was made. The 29 of us unanimously agreed.
“At that meeting, we were twenty-six but eventually, it increased to 29. On January 15, there was another stakeholders’ meeting with the national chairman of the party (Dr Abdullahi Ganduje) and the national working committee. This also included the leadership from Edo and all the aspirants.
“First, in Edo, before coming to Abuja, it was made clear that there would be no zoning. In fact, the state secretary of the party had announced that and on the basis of that, there were aspirants from the three senatorial zones.
“At the meeting on the 13th of January, it was also reiterated that there would be no zoning. So, it was not one of the criteria that were to be used be used for the screening. Also when we met at the national working committee, it was reiterated that there would be no zoning and that there would be a pruning to a manageable number.
“We went through that exercise, I think, on the 15th and 16th of January. I was interviewed on Tuesday, the 16th of January and on January 19, we were all invited to the National Assembly-one of the many halls, where the report of the committee was presented to us again by the leader of the party in our state because the committee had presented the report to the leadership; they had scrutinized it and asked questions and they now presented that report to us.
“At that meeting, we were told that the number had been pruned down to six-two per senatorial district. Since that happened, no other meeting had been called. At two per senatorial district, I made the cut. There was no mention of the fact that there was initial ten number of aspirants and then it was now six. Nobody mentioned that at that meeting. We were just told that it had been pruned down to six.”
Agba said that since after the pruning down of the number to six, the members of the committee had gone back to their destinations and no other meeting had been called as it was called the initial time where we were told that they would like to prune and asked us if we all agreed.
According to him: “No one asked if we agreed to further pruning and no criteria had been set or provided as they were provided in the first screening…”
He also confirmed the advisory nature of the report, explaining that it was also agreed that after the report, nobody was precluded from buying the nomination form.
Asked if he agreed with the story of four aspirants being screened and approved after the approval of six aspirants, including himself, Agba said that he was not aware of any further screening to prune the number of aspirants from six to four.
He responded: “If you want to cut your hair or somebody else wants to cut your hair, will you be there? You just have to be there when it is done. We had a meeting that we would like to do pruning. Do you agree? We said: Yes; and we went through an exercise and we were all given the terms of reference for it and they came back to present to us the result of the exercise. If there was going to be any further pruning, don’t you think the six aspirants who made the first pruning should be, once again, invited?”
While agreeing that the process that led to the screening and pruning exercise was fair, Agba said he did not have details of the report to know whether it was fair or not about what was written about him.
He explained, for instance, that. “I do not know what was written about me in the report of the committee.”
Asked if what Kassim Afegbua said on Sunday night on the same programme on Channels TV were true, Agba said he was surprised to hear that Afegbua said the number of aspirants was initially reduced to ten.
“I was surprised. How did he get that? Was he a member of the committee? He was not and no one told us when the committee made the report out. It was never mentioned. All they mentioned was six,” he stated.
Asked if he was the favoured candidate for the ticket of the party, Agba responded thus: “If I was the favoured candidate, with the story that is going, if it is true, would my name not be there? The fact remains that the national office of the party came out with a calendar and I am one who plans my activities and what I did was that a day before it was due for collection, I made the payment for the expression of interest and for the nomination forms and that payment was made at 9.58 am on the 9th of January.
“I knew I was not going to be around on the 10th of January because I was travelling. So, I got a former colleague of mine to go pick up the form. I have my form already. He picked up the form about 10.30 am on January 10 and about 1 pm that day there was some communication from the State Secretariat that no one should collect the form until we go through the screening process.
“I had already collected the form. I am not a wizard and there was no way I would know what the party was planning to do; so, I hear that some people have that against me, that I disobeyed the party. How would I have known what the party was planning to do if time table was out, which clearly stated the day the process would start?”