TELL Magazine

A faction of the All Progressives Congress, APC, in Edo State has rejected the Edo State Primary Election Committee headed by Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma. The committee which is to oversee the conduct of the APC primary election scheduled for Monday June 22, was inaugurated on Wednesday in Abuja. 

In a statement, factional chairman of the party, Anselm Ojezua, who was suspended last year, said “Our attention has been drawn to reports that a Primary Election Committee has been inaugurated by the Hilliard Eta-led faction of the National Working Committee of our Party to conduct Party Primaries in Edo State.”

He said “the purported inauguration” of the committee was reported to have been done while a controversy was raging as to the proper officer to take over from the suspended national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, noting, “We have it on good authority that Hon. Victor Giadom, the acting National Secretary, has been empowered by the FCT High Court in Abuja to act in that capacity”. Ojezua is the chairman of the faction of the APC loyal to the state governor, Godwin Obaseki who on Friday defected to the Peoples Democratic Party after his resignation on Tuesday. He however stated that he would not defect from the APC because he had a four-year mandate which was still running.

Ojezua expressed reservations with the process of constituting the committee because according to him, the NWC had not first obtained the approval of the National Executive Committee as required by the Constitution of the Party. He said “In the light of the above, we have no option but to reject the Hope Uzodinma-led Committee.”