Oshiomhole, APC govs head for showdown

Edo APC suspends Obaseki, deputy, SSG

APC in disarray – Edo PDP

WITH no end in sight yet in the running war of wits that pitched National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC) and immediate past governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole with his successor, Gov. Godwin Obaseki, the Progressives Governors’ Forum (PGF) of APC has directed Oshiomohole to immediately convene a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting or resign from his position.

  The APC governors’ forum handed down this position yesterday in a statement issued in Abuja by its Director-General, Salihu Lukman.

  Observers fear that this new line from the governors may worsen the crisis in Edo State chapter of APC which had suspended Oshiomhole on Tuesday, based on a vote of no confidence passed on him by chairmen of APC in the 18 local government areas of the state citing “his ignoble role in the crisis rocking the party in Edo State.”

According to Lukman, there is no basis for the continuous circumvention of calling a meeting of APC NEC by Oshiomohole.

  “Why is it impossible to convene a NEC or even National Caucus meetings, which are supposed to hold every quarter to resolve all these issues? Why should the NWC under Comrade Oshiomhole continue to imagine that it can conduct affairs of the party without mandatory meetings of party organs?

What legacy is Comrade Oshiomhole hoping to achieve as a National Chairman by running the party in a way that suggests almost zero commitment to issues of party development? In the current circumstance, nothing short of a NEC or National Caucus meeting of the party can resolve all our increasing organisational challenges as a party.

It is either Comrade Oshiomhole respect the provision of party constitution and convene superior organ meeting to deliberate on all our challenges, or he should just accept his inability to manage the party and simply resign,” the statement reads.

  Meanwhile, with less than 24 hours after the Anselm Ojezua-led faction of APC in Edo State  suspended Oshiomhole from the party, another faction of the yesterday suspended Gov. Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shuaibu, as well as Secretary to Edo State Government, Osarodion Ogie.

  Blaming their suspension on anti-party activities, in a press conference in Benin City, a chieftain of the party, Patrick Ikhariale said the decision was made in the best interest of APC.

  But Edo State Chapter of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday mocked the state wing of APC, describing it as a party in disarray.

  Edo State PDP Chairman, Dan Orbih, stated this in Benin while reacting to the gale of suspension rocking APC in the state, wondering how a party that suspended its national chairman, its governor and his deputy, his SSG, the state chairman and the secretary in one day can be allowed to return to power in the forthcoming EDO gubernatorial election.