TVC E. All Progressives Congress (APC), led by Prince Olagusoye Oyinlola, to resolve the crisis in the APC in Edo State, arrived penultimate Thursday and held their first meeting with Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
Other members of the delegation included Hajia Fatima Muhammed, a member of the Board of Trustees (BOT); Alhaji Ahmed Abdulahi, Prince Martins Bisong, Senator Osita Izunaso and Senator Ndoma Egba.
Their mandate was to unravel the cause of the dispute between Oshiomhole and his deputy, Dr Pius Odubu and also find lasting solution to the crisis which had engulfed the party ahead of the September 10 governorship election in the state.
Prince Oyinlola who disclosed that the negative press emanating from the state necessitated the decision by the national leadership to send the delegation to the state, said the intention was to resolve the crisis in order not to give the state back to the PDP.
Addressing Oshiomhole when they paid him a courtesy visit, Oyinlola who condoled with the government and people of the state over the demise of the Oba of Benin, Oba Erediauwa, whom he described as a father to all, said they were in the state “with a specific mandate to bring the great APC family in Edo State together once again.
We are here today on behalf of the national leadership of the party with a specific mandate to bring the APC family together. We must not become like a tribe of people who got victory but failed to manage it. We will continue to brief you as we go ahead with our assignment in Edo state.” “Some PDP defectors to ACN behind APC crisis” Oshiomhole who gave an insight into root of the crisis, said some people who defected to the then ACN from the PDP were behind the crisis.
He however expressed surprise that nobody from the national secretariat had called him to find out the cause of the problem before sending the fact-finding committee. This, he said, could signal that the rumoured rift between himself and the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was true. Oshiomhole said: “I want to thank you for coming on the strength of the very bad press that we have seen particularly over the past two months.
So, I can understand that anybody picking up the newspapers and reading those stories will imagine that Edo State Government House is on fire, the House of Assembly is burning. The truth is that this might be the wish of our enemies. The more dangerous enemies are those who have purportedly joined the APC, but their soul is in the PDP. By their choice of language, style and tactics, it is clear that they wish to be in APC while actually working in futility, hoping that they can discredit APC so that their own party that we have grounded, dismantled and rested can hopefully be revived.
I have no doubt that the God that we worship and who directed our thoughts and empowered us to dismantle the PDP rigging machine, that God is on duty. And as long as He is on duty and we served him sincerely, no man born of a woman can undo what God has done. “I like to remind you that when we arrived here in 2007, everybody in this state told me it was not possible to dethrone the PDP, that they had the money and they boasted of it. We were also told they had the control of the military and they celebrated it.
They had control of the police, the immigration, and that they had everything. They zoned Edo State to various warlords. Different parts of Benin City were partitioned to different warlords. I brought my skills here as a labour man and we fought. They stole my mandate, I pursued them.
I reclaimed it and I became a governor. In 2012 we went for the real battle and for the first time in the history of the Midwest Region and the old Bendel State and Edo State, no living or dead politician has had such uncommon support or goodwill, translating to electoral victory across all the 18 local government areas, including the enclaves of the three ruling families that I used to address as godfathers. I accomplished this feat in spite of their federal might in Abuja.
“Then the Police Commissioner was afraid to pay me a visit. But all of these crashed and I won 73 per cent of the votes in Edo State. So I believe that if I could win all of these in spite of federal might, with the help of God, we will do it again.
Vanguard
