The Edo state chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has called on the national caretaker committee of the party headed by Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe state, to uphold the suspension of the former national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
The Edo APC, in a statement issued in Benin on Friday and endorsed by the Secretary, Ose Udiamen Edekere, said that the decision was part of the communique issued at the end of the party’s State Executive Committee, SEC, meeting held on September 24, 2020, to review the outcome of the gubernatorial election which held on the 19th of September 2020, where the major factors which led to the abysmal failure of the party to retain its prime position in Edo State were discussed.
According to the statement, the party identified the factors responsible for its failure at the poll to include: “The crisis which was foisted on the Party by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole with the formation of a parallel-group within the Party called the Edo Peoples Movement (EPM) as a Special Purpose Vehicle to take over control of the Party in the State for the sole purpose of removing Godwin Obaseki from office as Governor of Edo State”.
Other factors listed as responsible for such abysmal performance were: “The forced Exit of the incumbent Governor who we had identified as the most valuable asset of the Party in Edo State and for whom the entire officers of the Party had expressed preference as a consensus candidate; the poor choice of a replacement in Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu who already had a credibility problem in the State earlier created by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole himself and the total disregard and disrespect for the structures of the Party in Edo State by the Candidate of the Party who put Adams Oshiomhole in charge of his campaign as the de facto leader despite the fact of his suspension from the Party”.
It also blamed the failure on “the contemptuous rebuff of the commendable and proactive efforts and recommendations of the Senator Ken Nnamani led Reconciliation Committee by Pastor Ize Iyamu and his inherited band of dissidents”, and the mismanagement of the resources meant to be deployed for the elections by the people saddled with the disbursement.
The Edo APC added that given the factors itemised, it was clear that the campaign effort of the Party in the state was designed to fail, as both Pastor Ize Iyamu and Adams Oshiomhole “erroneously believed that they could prosecute the campaign on the strength of their individual popularity to the exclusion of the entire Party Structure in the state without cognisance of the fact that they had frittered away whatever goodwill they had with the people in the course of their unholy conspiracy against the Governor and the Party”.
The statement lamented that the fact that the leadership of the Party at the National level allowed Oshiomhole to lead the campaign in Edo State to the exclusion of the entire Party apparatus, in spite of his suspended membership status and the disgraceful dissolution of the National Working Committee that he led, “leaves so much to be desired. With due respect, it smacks of gross negligence”.
“In the light of the foregoing, we believe that the National Caretaker Committee must present itself as being serious in its quest to reposition the Party in response to the clear mandate of the National Executive Committee and the yearnings of the teeming members of the Party in Edo State whose confidence in the leadership has been greatly compromised” the statement pointed out.
