…Disgruntled Party Chieftains In Anti-Party Activities...CONTINUE READING
Ahead of the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, the chances of the All Progressives Congress (APC) have come under serious threat by the combined forces of disputing party leaders and the unpopular choice of the candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, who is considered among some party leaders as unmarketable. Several reliable sources in Benin, the Edo State capital, confided in our correspondent that the internal squabbles have resulted in misalignment of objectives among top party hierarchy labelled ‘Abuja Leaders’ led by Senator Adams Oshiomhole and ‘Benin Leaders’ led by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu (POI).
MEDICAL CONSULTANTS REVEALED HOW MEN CAN NATURALLY AND PERMANENTLY CURE POOR ERECTION, SMALL AND SHAMEFUL MANHOOD, AND INFERTILITY ISSUES WITHOUT SIDE EFFECTS. STOP THE USE OF HARD DRUG FOR SEX! IT KILLS!!!..The seeming irreconcilable differences among the leaders and, in particular, the question of the competence of the candidate, have led m any to dump the party in recent time and forced many more into anti-party activities with a grim prospect of many more leaving the party in the coming days. The sources accused the leaders of failure to deal with complaints by disgruntled members of the party at home. And that because their whispers of discontent were arrogantly rebuffed by the party leaders both by those in the state and Abuja, a groundswell of antiparty has now replaced the grumblings in a show of defiance by the party stalwarts. One of the sources said: “The major problem here is the cold war between the leaders of the party.
“The Abuja leaders, from the word go, have their own candidate, Hon Dennis Idahosa, who is now the deputy governorship candidate and the Benin leaders who have the governorship candidate, Monday Okpebholo. After the controversial primaries conducted by Hope Uzodimma of Imo State and Bassey Otu of Cross River, they were able to agree just to give peace a chance. It was gathered that while POI continues to pose as the godfather and man-in-charge of the candidate, Senator Oshiomhole was quietly working things out. But the disagreement soon came to a head with the recent USA tour by Okpebholo to intimate Edo Diaspora with his dreams and aspirations, a move allegedly opposed by Oshiomhole. However, POI and the state Acting Chairman of the party, Jarret Tenebe, had their way. The result was a monumental fiasco as the candidate’s poor understanding of issues and his general level of competence were exposed to the chagrin of those at home who counselled against the trip initially. While that grudge was yet to heal, the State Campaign Council was constituted with Oshiomhole as the head, a situation said not to go down well with POI The grudge and ill-feeling re-echoed on Friday when the Council was inaugurated. Eye witness accounts report that while Oshiomhole was in his usual vivacious self, directing affairs, POI was visibly indifferent with a look far and distant. With the ‘trouble in the party,’ courageous members simply dumped the party altogether.
Others who are still in the party are said to be neck deep in anti-party activities. According to our sources, the coming days in June and July will witness more defections and possibly more open rejection of Okpebholo, particularly by his Esan brothers and sisters. One of the sources revealed: “The thing going on in APC now is that many chieftains are angry. The question is how did the party candidate manage to emerge? He is the worst of the candidates in the election. People did not know how he managed to emerge or how the leaders did it. Now people are finding it difficult to market him. And when they complain, the leaders will say Party is supreme, party is supreme. How can the party be supreme when you have Asue (Dr. Asue Ighodalo of Peoples Democratic Party) or Olu-Dee (Olumide Akpata of Labour Party) to contest with?
“So, that is what is going on. But because the party leaders will not allow them to talk, they have now formed numerous groups and caucuses and they are doing anti-party – many of them. The biggest challenge to APC is coming from Esanland. Our people are insisting that after giving Edo people two Professors, Prof Ambrose Alli and Prof Osunbor, they cannot afford to give Edo people a welder by profession. That is the issue now. They seem to be saying the man will disgrace Esan people. Unfortunately, it is too late to do anything about it. So, what they are doing is answering APC by day and fully doing PDP or LP at night. But not everybody has that time. They simply defect and tell the world what is going on like State Vice Chairman, Chief Francis Inegbeniki, Chief Ghadaffi, who verbally set Arise TV on fire on Friday morning, the former National President of the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN), Alhaji Isiwele of Uromi, Barr. Dan Ogbegie, even the young Turks like John Mayaki and Saint Moses Eromosele, popularly called SME and Chris Osa. The list is endless and this is June. By July I don’t know what is going to happen.
