Why APC congress in Edo State was cancelled Governor Adams Oshiomhole has been facing serious political challenges in Edo State in the past one week, this time around not from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but from his own party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). The last Tuesday ward congress of the APC almost tore the party apart in the state after the ward congress which loyalists of his deputy, Dr Pius Odubu, claimed victory in Edo South while those of the former South-south Vice Chairman of the APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, cried foul over the exercise and called for its cancellation. Ize-Iyamu complained that there was no result sheet and “officials assigned to conduct the congress became ghosts”. He therefore stressed the need for the party to live up to its name and cancel the exercise. But Odubu countered the argument, arguing that the party members who came out to vote made do with the materials available and that the exercise was a huge success. Oshiomhole, on Thursday, announced the cancellation of the exercise and gave reasons for his action. “There was a huge turnout; however, in most cases, officials assigned to conduct this exercise did not get to the venue on time and, where they showed up, they did not carry materials, such as the registers and the result sheets, with them. Without the register you cannot carry out accreditation and for any election to be meaningful, particularly an election that is not open to every voter, but one that is open only to members of the party, it is absolutely necessary that all those who came to vote that they are accredited and verified as real members of the party,” the governor said. “So, the absence of any formal accreditation will undermine a very important rules of the game which cannot be cured by action. So that fundamental defect of conducting election without accreditation made the exercise a complete nullity and it cannot be remedied because we cannot even vouch for the authenticity of those who voted. And I will like to explain that I have no doubt whatsoever that majority of those who came out to vote, they were members of our party. However it is impossible to say that some of those who had voted were actually members of the party because accreditation was not carried out. In some other instances, not only was accreditation not carried out, those who were to conduct the election were not available and therefore many people decided to resort to self-help. People who turned up, now on their own, appointed among themselves individuals to conduct the election. Consequently you will find that in an area, two people declaring themselves as winners. All of these has cast serious doubt on the integrity of the entire process”. He continued: “There were areas where people used unfair tactics to scare away people who came to vote. And you found that in many parts of Oredo, this kind of thing happened, where people ran away while trying to cast their votes. Now we have listened to reports from all the local governments in Edo South and it was clear th7at what was done was not absolutely satisfactory. And therefore we have decided that rather than lay this kind of foundation, we will in line with the commitment to democratic principle and ensuring that our members have a party that is founded on popular participation, one that is not driven by god fathers or by self- imposition; the only way to cure this serious defect on the guidelines of the election is to cancel the exercise. And we all agreed yesterday that the Tuesday exercise be cancelled in Edo South so that we can conduct a free and fair congress which has now be rescheduled. We have also decided on those who were assigned to conduct this exercise, because of the incompetent way they handled it, that these people will not participate in this and we will appoint fresh people from other parts of the state who are neutral to conduct the election. “For us in APC, I believe that we must try to change the old attitude of trying to cheat ourselves. The foundation of one man one vote, and for sustainable democracy, dictates that there must be internal party democracy and the real test of that internal party democracy lies in the conduct of ward congress. If ordinary people at the grassroots cannot determine who their ward leader is, at what level of the party structure can they have a say? So, for us, it is better we do the exercise over and over again until we get it right. Our party is the All Progressives Congress and we cannot be said to be progressives if we are doing exactly the same thing the other party is doing”.
Posted on: Sun, 13 Apr 2014 11:57:00 +0000
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