SAN FRANCISCO, December 17, (THEWILL) – The All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State has perfected plans to defect to the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
Chairman of the opposition party in the state, Mr Anslem Ojezua, confirmed the development in a phone interview with THEWILL on Thursday.
“Yes, we have resigned from the APC and we are going into the PDP,” he said and explained why they were defecting.
“We have lost confidence in the national leadership of the party because they are not capable of obeying the party constitution and are hobnobbing with those who have violated that constitution.”
When asked when the defection would take place, he said as soon as all the members of the APC in the state fulfill the necessary requirements for “moving en masse,” into the PDP.
“You know there are requirements in every such case. Everybody is expected to register at the ward level of the PDP and we have instructed all our members across the state to go their wards and register with the ruling party,” he said.
Ojezua washed his hands off the reconciliation committee of the party set up on Tuesday to reconcile aggrieved members of the party in the South -south geo-political zone.
“We have resigned, we have resigned. They can go and reconcile with themselves.” Ojezua bellowed.
He told THEWILL that the state Executive Council of the APC, comprising the chairmen across the 18 local governments met on Wednesday, December 16, in Benin City and resolved to move into the PDP.
Ojezua is the legally recognized Chairman of the APC in Edo State. During a legal battle to stop the factional chairman of the party in the state, Col David Imuse and his aides to relocate the party secretariat on the eve of the November 16 governorship election, the Federal High Court in Benin-City ruled on a motion exparte on June 24, 2020, in Suit No. FHC/B/CS/S7/2020 filed by Anselm Ojezua challenging the setting up of a factional party secretariat of the APC in the state.
The presiding Judge, Hon. Justice A.A. Demi-Ajayi, affirmed Ojezua as the authentic State Chairman of the party in line with the provisions of the APC Constitution, which required that for a change of secretariat, the State chapter must make a request, which must be approved by the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC). The APC NEC has, however, not met on any such matter.
THEWILL recalls that in anticipation of the defection and its likely impact on the party in the state, the South- south leaders of the APC met on Tuesday and after an exhaustive discussion on the state of affairs of the party in the zone appointed former governor of Edo State and ex-National Chairman, Chief Odigie Oyegun, to head its reconciliation committee.
Announcing the committee’s mission, Secretary of the Party’s Caretaker/Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee (CECPC), Sen. John James Akpanudoedehe, harped on the need for the South South zone to meet periodically and re-energise the party into a proper winning machine in time for the 2023 general elections.
Akpanudoedehe noted that,“while it can be argued that disagreement is normal in politics, especially where the struggle for political power and opportunities are involved, but taken to extremes, could jeopardise the chances of the party in elections. “
THEWILL Newspaper had reported exclusively in its preview edition during the week that the two major parties in Edo State, the PDP and APC, were involved in a chess game between Governor Godwin Obaseki and the PDP over appointments.
The governor would want to call the shots in making the appointments so that his loyalists in his former party, the APC, are accommodated pending the discharge of court cases over his electoral suitability, by January, 2021.
On Tuesday, the Federal High Court in Abuja adjourned hearing on the suit indefinitely.
Ken Mozia, Governor Obaseki’s lawyer, appealed for an indefinite suspension of the suit to allow the Court of Appeal determine an application dealing with the case.
Justice Ahmed Mohammed, the trial judge, thereby suspended the suit.
