Wednesday’s dissolution of all executive organs of the All Progressives Congress (APC) by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party notwithstanding, the crisis rocking the Edo State chapter of the party appears unabated as two factions continue to lay claim to the leadership of the party in the state.
While the NEC directed the dissolved state executive committees to transit into caretaker committees, in Edo State, both the Anslem Ojezua faction and that of Col David Imuse (Rtd) said that they would dissolve into the caretaker committee as directed by the NEC.
Ojezua faction which was sympathetic to Governor Godwin Obaseki, while his ordeals lasted in the APC before he moved to join the PDP, held a meeting at the recognised secretariat of the APC to decide on their next line of action.
Nigerian Tribune gathered that part of the decisions on their table include whether to remain in the APC or move en masse to the PDP to join Obaseki, who won his second term in office on the banner of the umbrella party.
The group, which considered the current silent war between Obaseki and his APC decampees, on one hand, and the original PDP members over the control of the party in the state, also debated if it would be politically expedient for them to follow the governor to any other party he might opt to join should the crisis of confidence in the PDP remain irredeemable.
But members of the Imuse faction of the APC, it was also gathered, differed, saying that Ojezua, having worked against the party during the September 19 governorship election, had no moral right to remain a member of the APC in the state.
A member of the Imuse faction, who craved anonymity, expressed shock that “Ojezua would be laying claiming to the party he wanted to destroy, he publicly worked against our party and the candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. With support from the governor, he opposed the defection of Ize-Iyamu into our party and denied him till the election.
“However, he was removed in line with the constitution of the party and ratified by the then NWC so he lacks any right to speak about APC. His romance with Obaseki and other PDP leaders to destroy the APC is not hidden, but our NEC has directed and we are waiting for further instructions,” the source added.
Also speaking, Ojezua wondered why APC did not extend the expulsion hammer to the former national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and its governorship candidate in the last guber race, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, in the same way it expelled the former national vice chairman, South-South of the party, Hillard Eta.
He said that he remained the valid state chairman of the party, adding that “we have given instructions to our counterparts at the lower levels of the party to make consultations. We are more interested in knowing the future of our party because you know this was the party to beat in Edo State in the past 12 years until Oshiomhole came and messed things up here; so it is not just enough to treat us the way they treated other states.
“This state needs proper attention; to a certain point it is in assessing the desires and wishes of the membership in Edo State and if they don’t do that, then we will now be wondering whether we are in the right association.”
According to him, “Any leadership must be sensitive to the feelings of their people no matter how lowly placed we are, our membership is not inferior to any other membership anywhere in the country but if they begin to treat us as if we are second rate then, of course, we will have to review our position.”
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