The faction of the Edo State All Progressives Congress loyal to Adams Oshiomhole on Wednesday passed a vote of confidence in the embattled National Chairman of the party.
It was learnt that the move was geared towards helping Oshiomhole, who is battling to save his job, get more support ahead of the March 17 APC National Executive Council meeting, where his fate could be decided.
The Executive Committee of the faction also backed the 17 executive members of Ward 10, Etsako-West Local Government Area, who recently denounced the suspension of Oshiomhole at ward level.
A fierce fight between Governor Godwin Obaseki and his immediate predecessor Oshiomhole for the control of the APC in the state led to the division of the party, with one faction loyal to the former and the other to the ex-governor.
The faction loyal to the governor is headed by Anselm Ojezua.
Addressing a press conference in Benin, spokesman for the David Imuse faction, Chris Azebamwan, alleged that the purported suspension of the national chairman was engineered by Obaseki, using nine members of the ward executive members earlier suspended by the majority of the ward executives.
He said, “Against all permutations and against all persuasions, Adams Oshiomhole appealed to the political class in Edo State to accept Godwin Obaseki as his successor.
“Immediately after Godwin Obaseki was sworn in, he ran away with the government. He said he was not interested in politics in his ignorance and naivety that government was a product of politics.”
Azebamwan said the governor embarked on a process of making the state executive committee of the APC an arm of the state government.
But Obaseki denied being responsible for Oshiomhole’s problems.
“We want to reiterate that the governor is not behind the travails of the suspended national chairman. Comrade Oshiomhole is only reaping the consequences of his actions and inactions while he served as national chairman, some which include the efforts to destabilise the party in the state,” the governor said in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie.
Obaseki said Azebamwan was not qualified to speak for the party, having been suspended.