‘Suspension of Oshiomhole, Obaseki, Unknown to South-south APC

‘Suspension of Oshiomhole, Obaseki, Unknown to South-south APC

Bassey Inyang in Calabar

Peace appears to be in the horizon for the Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC, as the South-south zonal chapter of the party has declared that the purported suspension of some members of the party were not binding on them.

National Vice Chairman South-south of the APC, Ntufam Hilliard Eta, who commented on the crisis yesterday while speaking to journalists said as far as the zone was concerned, no member of the APC had been suspended.

According to Eta, the purported suspension of some big time politician and others by the warring factions were unconstitutional, null, void, and of no effect.

Eta said the suspension of the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki; the state deputy governor, Mr. Philip Shaibu; the state secretary to the state government, Osarodion Ogie, the state party chairman, Anslem Ojezua; the National Chairman of the party, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, and other members of his faction is illegal, and strange to the APC in the zone.

The zonal vice chairman said the actions taken by both factions violates the provisions of the constitution of the party on imposition of sanctions on alleged airing members.

He said the South-south zone of the party would soon convene an emergency meeting to ensure that the crisis bedeviling the party in Edo State is resolved.

“We intend to convene an emergency Zonal executive committee meeting to look into the whole matter. Having said so, I am not in a position to take  sides in the matter in Edo state. But, let me say I have read and seen in TV and  newspapers as well as in the social media the various sanctions and suspensions starting from the national chairman,  who was said to have been ,suspended, to the governor,  his deputy , the secretary to government,  the chairman of the  and even the state secretary of the party.

“My take on this is that none of those processes lived to the expectations of the constitution of the party. So, as for me as an individual they are all null and void,” he said.

Continuing Eta said, “The truth of the matter is that political parties are made up of human beings. There are constitutional processes, and step that you take before you can sanction people.

\Like I said one of the greatest ingredients in the process is that every person that is accused must be given an opportunity to react.  I have not seen or read where people were given opportunity to come and defend themselves in this process.  You make dictatorial tyrannical? The whole process is undemocratic and null and void.

“It is required the constitution to give anyone that has been suspended seven  days within to defend the allegations after the committee returns it’s report to the relevant national  committee who will now take a decision whether to sanction or not to sanction the individual so petitioned.  The moment that is done and the one who was petitioned is not satisfied with the process, he or she has the right to appeal to the next superior executive committee. For instance if a petition comes from the ward level, it can go up to the National Executive Committee, NEC, by appeals.  So, what I see in the TV or read in the papers, none of them had followed the party’s constitution.”

Eta who declined comments concerning the alleged suspension of the top politicians in the state by the National Working Committee, NWC, said he was not abreast with what transpired during the meeting.

Eta said it is after gathering enough facts about the meeting in order to make informed comments about it.

Urging for peace in the Edo state chapter of the APC, the zonal chairman said, “What we need to do now is that we really need not to go to the public to wash our dirty linens to the public.  What we rather should do is to find ways and means of reconciling our people so that the only state that we have in the South- south will not be lost to the opposition. So, that after the Bayelsa election we will now have two states controlled by the APC in the south-south.  This is my take on these matters.”

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