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…Dispatches committee to Edo to update membership register
From Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
National leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has handed a stern warning to its former chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the state chapter of the party that they lack the authority to vet and clear aspirants contesting the forthcoming Edo state governorship election.
Oshiomhole, in collaboration with many stakeholders in the state, have constituted a committee to trip and streamline the number of aspirants for the governorship poll, reducing the number to a manageable size of six.
However, dismissing the arrangement, the national leadership emphasised that the responsibility of vetting and clearing the aspirants on the platform of the party solely rest on the shoulders of the National Working Committee (NWC).
Deputy National Organising Secretary, Nze Chidi Duru, who made the clarification while formally presenting the expression of interest and nomination forms to one of the aspirants, maintained that the leadership of the party is not ready to abdicate the responsibility vested on it to anybody.
He reminded them that the exercise of vetting and clearing aspirants will happen in the first instance through a committee that will be set up very soon.
While promising that the leadership will ensure and guarantee free, fair and transparent primary, Duru said tnat the NWC is committed to ensuring the emergence of a candidate to win the election for the party.
“On behalf of the National Chairman, I want to thank the aspirant for first nursing the ambition which is very important under our party in the forthcoming election in Edo state.
“He has also asked me to inform all the aspirants that the responsibility of vetting and clearing all the aspirants domicile with the NWC of our party and peadership has not abandoned that responsibility or have they vested that authority on any other sub-national.
“Therefore, the exercise of vetting and clearing will only happen in the first instance through a committee that will be set up and we are in the process of setting up the committee.
We will ensure and guarantee free, fair and transparent primary. What we want is the person who will win for us. That will win the primary and win the election ultimately for the party.
“We want Edo state in the basket of APC states and that is very important. We cannot just have one lone voice in the South-South, which Cross Rivers currently represents.
“Once we can have Edo state in the basket, hopefully, we can also translate into another state in Ondo. That is the message from the National Chairman and everything will be fully communicated to the party in Edo state,” he said.
Speaking further, Duru noted that the party has concluded arrangements to dispatch a committee from the national headquarters to Edo to update the membership register of the state chapter.
“The second one is what will soon happen. A committee from the national headquarters will be on their way to Edo state this week to begin the update of the membership register.
“As you know, there were discordant tones. We will write a letter in that respect to the state chapter of the party. We can only be seen to be impartial and we cannot come to a meeting of stakeholders to misrepresent the total membership of our party in Edo state.
“That the membership in Edo is only 241,000 in numbers when we know that the membership of even Ebonyi state is almost close to a million and Edo is much bigger than Ebonyi state. Even against our protestation that we have a bigger and more authentic register. So that is the responsibility of the NWC and we will discharge that,” he warned.
