Increasing Confusion In The APC; As Elders Of The Party Leave In Droves

** Whither APC?

on May 09, 2014 at 1:22 am

By Emmanuel Aziken, Political Editor

Coming from a man like Chief Tom Ikimi, one of the country’s most enduring political figures, the memo to the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC Chief Bisi Akande was indeed unnerving.

The memo dated May 1, 2014 was a narrative of the increasing confusion in the opposition political party across the country with the assertion that the party is losing members in strong numbers across the country.

“I am compelled to express strong reservations on the present state of affairs in our Party and my heart bleeds when I look back at the efforts and personal sacrifice many of us made to bring this national platform to fruition,” Ikimi wrote.

Just few days after the memo was sent out, the base of the party in Ikimi’s home, Edo State was shaken following the defection of the erstwhile national vice-chairman (South-South) of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and his followers from the APC.

Ize-Iyamu left the party alongside strong followers including the pioneer state chairman of the ACN in Edo State, Prince Tony Prince Tony Omoaghe, the pioneer deputy chairman of the party in the state, Alhaji Usman Shagadi among many other prominent leaders of the party including some who left their positions in government.

Of the serving members of the House of Representatives from Edo State, only Abubakar Momoh representing Etsako Federal Constituency, incidentally, Governor Adam’s Oshiomhole’s constituency has left the party. The shaking in Edo State is only reflective of the nationwide pangs that are shaking the newly formed party to its roots.

In Adamawa, Sokoto, Kano, Borno, Ogun, Akwa Ibom, Imo, Bayelsa and across the country party elders are leaving in droves putting to question the capacity of the party to trouble the ruling PDP.

Just as in Edo State where Pastor Ize-Iyamu is at the centre of the crisis, across the border in Delta State, another man of God, Prophet Jones Erue is also in the centre of controversy over the conduct of the recent party congresses.

Erue was supposedly thrown up as the state chairman of the party in a congress that many members of the defunct ACN are alleging was widely mired in controversy.

The cracks: Leaders of the defunct ACN in the state most of whom are inclined to the leadership of Senator Francis Okpozo allege that Erue was foisted on the party by Otega Emerhor, a wealthy businessman known to have a governorship aspirant on the platform of the new party.

Many party elders are, however, worried that Erue was supported in the congresses by elements known to have worked for a former governor of the state, Chief James Ibori whose loyalists it is alleged, may be working to either gain control of the APC or weaken the party to allow the PDP sail through.

“The kind of money that reportedly changed hands during the congresses is not the kind of money that a businessman like Otega would throw into politics and that is why we suspect that his people have a connection with Ibori and his boys,” a party elder told Vanguard.

Party elders are also peeved that Otega once he came into the APC threw up a parallel structure that almost always worked in parallel with the mainstream structure of the party led by Senator Okpozo.

As at press time the results of the state congress in Delta State was yet to be ratified by the national secretariat.

The same hiatus is also in Ogun State where parallel congresses were conducted by forces respectively led by the national leader of the party, Aremo Segun Osoba and Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

Amosun is accused by many partisans of crossing the bounds of governance to take control of the party structure in the state.

Amosun vs Osoba

The crisis in the state was remarkably long predicted. Amosun came into the defunct ACN from the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP but when he entered in late 2010, he was peeved that many of his loyalists who had emerged as candidates for the 2011 election on the platform of the ANPP were not given ACN tickets.

Ahead of the 2015 round of elections, the governor and many of the National Assembly members were engaged in a cat and mouse game over control of the party. Many National Assembly members almost all of whom are loyal to Osoba were peeved that the governor sponsored rival congresses which they alleged were aimed at stopping them from winning re-election tickets for 2015