Edo state All Progressive Congress APC and governorship aspirants of the party in the September 19th governorship election on Thursday faulted the Wednesday rally of Governor Godwin Obaseki celebrating the suspension of the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomole describing it as a show of shame.
At a press briefing in Benin the Edo State capital, APC state secretary, Mr Chris Azebanmwan Oshiomole remains the National Chairman of the party because there are several Supreme Court judgments that make a crisis in a political party an internal affair of the party.
An Abuja High Court had on Wednesday in a ruling on an exparte order asked the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to step down until a case of suspension brought before the court by some persons from his ward was resolved.
But APC governorship aspirants and party chieftains in the state vowed to swim or sink with Oshiomole as the National Chairman.
The leaders from the three senatorial districts of the state also describe as ridiculous on the part of the court to rely on a document purportedly signed by three persons out of 27 member ward executive to give such an order.
“Many of you might not be aware that the so-called letter of suspension from the ward was signed by only three persons in an executive of twenty-seven persons.
So you can imagine how ridiculous it is to rely on a document signed only by three persons.
Many of us know that award Executive annoy even sack a local government Chairman because the ward is just one among many in the local government.
In the same way, a ward Executive cannot dream of sacking a state Chairman because the state Chairman controls many local government areas.
In Edo state, for instance, there are eighteen Local governments and one hundred and ninety-two wards.
So one Local Government, out of one hundred and ninety-two can not remove a state Chairman that was elected at the state Congress.
So you can imagine how ridiculous it is for anybody rely on a document signed by only three persons in the a ward as a basis to remove a Chairman that was popularly elected in a convention that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was present,” said Ize-Iyamu.
They also said they would soon begin rallies to mobilise members of the state despite the ban on rallies by Obaseki as they observed that he has himself violated a directive that there should not be rallies in the state.
Former Attorney General of the state, Mr Henry Idahagbon called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders of the party to rescue the APC from the “stranglehold” of Obaseki.
He said: “I want to make an appeal to the National Leader of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari and our National Leader Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu that we the APC members in Edo state we have suffered for too long under the dictatorship of ‘Major General’ Godwin Obaseki.
The National Leaders should not wait for all of us to be crushed before they come to our aide. It is time they must intervene in what is happening in the party in the state.
One man after using the party apparatus to come to power has totally alienated all the party members both the leadership and members of the party.
He has been throwing bombs at us, I am a recipient of 2,900 pellets of bullets directed at me in my office so the party leadership should not wait to kill us before they intervene.
We are preparing for the election and we have aspirants that can win the election and manage the party”
On his part, a governorship aspirant, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu who spoke on behalf of other aspirants who all sent representatives to the conference accused Obaseki of introducing violence into the politics of the state.
He said he was shocked that Obaseki and his supporters were always celebrating any misfortune that befalls the party and people of the state.
“What we find very shameful is the jubilation in some quarters in Edo state yesterday over the so-called court order, I was ashamed to see the governor of Edo State elected on the platform of the APC rejoicing that an eminent son of Edo state, the former governor of the state the man who God used to put him there, the man when he could not campaign had to campaign for him and the man who spoke for him everywhere they went, I was ashamed to see the governor jubilating and singing all over Benin that Adams Oshiomhole has been removed as National Chairman.
We want to ask, does the removal of Adams Oshiomhole even guarantee a second ticket for him? It shows how shallow they are in their thinking.
A man who glorifies in Edo people being removed from office, can we allow him to remain in office? You will remember the same jubilation took place when the NDDC Board was suspended.”
Ize-Iyamu said Obaseki and his supporters did the same thing when APC lost its governorship victory in Bayelsa state.
On ban of rallies Ize-Iyamu said “Out of desperation, the state governor announced that he has banned rallies in the state where that authority for him to say that came from, I don’t know.
We need to make him know that in a civilian dispensation, there are rules procedures so we don’t understand where he got the authority to ban rallies but the funny thing is that the same rally that he has banned, in the past one week, the governor has flouted that decree, he has held a rally at Irrua, he has held a rally at Auchi only yesterday he held a rally at Urokpota Hall in Benin.
The governor cannot be doing rallies and tell us that we cannot hold rallies so we want to put him on notice that we will begin to hold rallies and we are waiting for him as the emperor of Edo state to put us to jail.”
