Tony Osauzo, Benin
Governorship aspirants, leaders and stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State have warned that they will resist any attempt to remove the national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole from office.
Addressing journalists in Benin City on behalf other governorship aspirants and party faithful, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, described Oshiomhole as a National asset to the APC in Edo State and Nigeria, stressing “we stand solidly behind our national chairman.”
Ize-Iyamu who spoke on the heels of an Abuja Federal High Court interim order affirming the suspension of Oshiomhole by his ward in Edo State, carpeted the celebration mood displayed by Governor Godwin Obaseki in Benin shortly after the court order.
He accused Obaseki of introducing violence into the politics of the state, saying “our disposition to peace is not a sign of weakness. Those who speak violence cannot sustain it if it were to erupt.”
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, 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 had been removed as the 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 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 when APC lost its governorship victory in Bayelsa State.
On the ban of rallies Ize-Iyamu said: “Out of desperation, the state governor announced that he had 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 the 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,” Pastor Ize-Iyamu said.
He said it was ridiculous on the part of the court to rely on a document purportedly signed by three persons out a 27-member ward executive to give such an order.
Earlier, state publicity secretary of the party, Chris Azebanmwan, said there were several Supreme Court judgments that made crisis in a political party an internal affair of the party.
Also speaking, former Attorney General of the state, Hon. Henry Idahagbon, called on President Muhammadu Buhari and other leaders of the party to rescue the APC from the “stranglehold” of Obaseki.
“I want to make an appeal to President Muhammadu Buhari and our national Leader Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, that we the APC members in Edo State 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 … 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 election and we have aspirants that can win election and manage the party,” he said.