Anthony Iwuoma
Prominent leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the South South, have concluded on the removal of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman of the party, saying he must go.
The leaders, including governor of Oshiomhole’s home state, Godwin Obaseki, with whom he has been having running battle over control of the party structure in the state; Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi; former Governor of Edo State, Oserheimen Osunbor, and Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo, among others insist that the embattled national chairman must vacate his office.
In his stead, they resolved that the Acting National Secretary of the party, Victor Giadom, should replace Oshiomhole in acting capacity, adding that the meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, slated for March 17, 2020 must go on as scheduled.
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The resolution was reached after a meeting of the South-south leaders at Edo State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro, Abuja, in which zonal party leaders, including factional chairman of the Edo State chapter, Anselm Ojezua; Senator Domingo Obende;, Senator Ndoma Egba; former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Usani; Senator James Akpan Udoedege; former TUC president, Peter Esele, and Sam Sam Jaja, among others were present.
They said the NEC is the only constitutionally recognised body empowered to resolve knotty issues affecting the party and, therefore, urged members of the party from the region to attend the meeting regardless of the call for boycott by the National Vice Chairman, South-south, Hillard Eta.
According to Governor Obaseki, who read the communique released at the end of the meeting, former governors, seven ministers, former ministers, serving National Assembly members, former NASS members, and all zonal and state executive members of the party attended the zonal caucus meeting.
The communique read part: “At the meeting, the leaders of the zone deliberated extensively on the situation in the party and at the end of the meeting, they adopted the following resolutions:
“That as a party, we commend our brother, the Acting Chairman of the APC, Victor Giadom, for rising to the occasion by providing leadership for the party in this trying times.
“That we fully support the convening of the National Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday March 17th, as the NEC is the only recognised organ under the constitution of our party to resolve the APC crisis.
“That we insist that the party should respect the current zoning arrangement by retaining the chairmanship of our great party in the South-South zone even in an acting capacity.
“We resolved that the most senior officer of the party from the zone, being the National Acting Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom, should be confirmed Acting National Chairman for the time-being.
“We urged all our brothers and sisters from the zone to fully embrace the NEC meeting and not boycott the emergency NEC meeting, which has been slated for Tuesday March 17th. Because boycott in a democratic environment is always counterproductive.”
