Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, Minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi; Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo; former Edo state governor Oserheimen Osunbor; immediate past Director General of Nigerian Maritime Safety Administration Agency (NIMASA), Dakuku Peterside and other leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC in the South South, have insisted on the removal of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as National Chairman of the party.
The South South leaders reached the resolution to replace Oshiomhole with the Acting National Secretary of the party, Victor Giadom in acting capacity.
Obaseki, Amaechi and the others maintained that the party’s National Executive Committee, NEC, scheduled for next week Tuesday, must hold.
In the meeting, which had the presence of other South South APC leaders such as Senator Ndoma Egba, former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Usani; factional chairman of Edo state chapter Anselm Ojezua; Senator Domingo Obende, Senator James Akpan Udoedege; Sam Sam Jaja, former TUC President, Peter Esele among others, they called on all members of the party from the geographical zone to attend the meeting.
According to them, the NEC is the only democratic instrument of the party authorized to do so by its constitution.
They took the decisions in Abuja, at Edo State Governor’s Lodge in Asokoro.
This is despite the call by the National vice chairman, South South, Hillard Eta for the South South APC leaders to boycott the meeting.
Governor Obaseki read out a communique released at the end of the meeting. It said seven ministers, serving National Assembly members, former ministers, former governors, former NASS members, and all zonal and state executive members of the party attended the zonal caucus meeting.
The communique noted in part, “At the meeting, the leaders of the zone deliberated extensively on the situation in the party and at the end of the meeting, they adopted the following resolutions:
“That as a party, we commend our brother, the Acting Chairman of the APC, Victor Giadom, for rising to the occasion by providing leadership for the party in this trying times.
“That we fully support the convening of the National Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday March 17th, as the NEC is the only recognised organ under the constitution of our party to resolve the APC crisis.
“That we insist that the party should respect the current zoning arrangement by retaining the chairmanship of our great party in the South-South zone even in an acting capacity.
“We resolved that the most senior officer of the party from the zone, being the National Acting Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom, should be confirmed Acting National Chairman for the time-being.
“We urged all our brothers and sisters from the zone to fully embrace the NEC meeting and not boycott the emergency NEC meeting, which has been slated for Tuesday March 17th. Because boycott in a democratic environment is always counterproductive.”
