Chairmen of the All Progressives Congress in the 18 local government councils of Edo State, have faulted Tuesday’s adoption of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the consensus aspirant by some party members at an event held in Abuja.
Chairman of the APC Chairmen, Mr Ben Oghomu, said this at a press briefing at the party’s Secretariat in Benin.
He declared Ize-Iyamu’s adoption “ultra vires, null and void.” The chairmen also faulted the decision of the party’s National Working Committee to grant a waiver to the aspirant.
The chairmen said, “Article 31 of the party’s constitution confers that power on the National Executive Committee, of the party and condition for waiver prescribed by the party constitution has not been met.”
This is coming on the heels of the selection of Ize-Iyamu by the screening committee of a faction of the party, in Abuja. He was given the nod to contest the June 22 APC Governorship primary against the incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki.
The briefing which had in attendance all the 18 party chairmen vowed to work towards Obaseki’s victory both during the party primary and the governorship election scheduled for September.
The chairmen said, “We the local government party Chairmen of APC in Edo State, wish to state for the avoidance of doubt, that the purported agreement to return Pastor Osagie -Ize Iyamu as a consensus candidate of the APC is totally false without foundation. Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu is not a member of our party, he led his followers out of the APC in 2014 and even contested the governorship on the platform of the PDP in 2016 which he lost.”