All Progressives Congress
Edo
State Chapter
Office of the State Publicity Secretary
Your ref……………......... Our ref……………………….. Date…25/4/2014………
The
attention of the leadership of All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State
Chapter, has been drawn to an unsigned text of a press statement made public by
so-called Alaghodaro group in the party yesterday.
APC
would have preferred to ignore this tissue of lies which even the authors
feared to sign or identify themselves in as a script of a cacophony crafted by
a group of political desperadoes but, for the fact that the leader of this
group, Barrister Osagie Ize-Iyamu whose desperation for political power is
driving this Alaghodaro militancy, is a pastor of a famous church.
We
had expected that those who truly loved Pastor Ize-Iyamu of the Redeemed
Christian Church would have by now been fasting and praying to God for
forgiveness for him for leading his entire congregation to impersonate at the
rescheduled Ugboko-Ward congress at Ugbokoniro on April 12.
We
have video records of complaints by several members of the church who,
frightened by a commotion that was almost resulting in violent fight, grumbled
aloud that they only went for an all-night vigil on Monday April 11 in their
church in Benin City only to be forced into over twenty waiting buses the
following morning and driven to Ugbokoniro about seventy kilometers away to
vote with fake party membership slips at the ward congress. The insistence by
the opponent on accreditation of voters sent the conscripted church members
panicking.
Now
that this group has come out openly to propagate the desperation that led the
pastor to impersonate with his entire congregation, APC pleads with Comrade Governor
Adams Oshiomhole on whom they are trying to rub their sins to forgive them for
they know not what they do.
Here
is a point-to-point reply to the anonymous text:
1. It
is not true that this group voluntarily supported Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to
librate Edo State from political oppression in 2006. Rather, they were failed
rebels known as “grace group” who were deregistered from PDP as punishment for
their rebellion against Chief Tony Anenih, who they are now shamelessly begging
to harbor them. It was after they were rejected and ejected from PDP that they
went to beg Comrade Oshiomhole who had already gained ground politically on a
joint platform of ANPP and LP. Now that this disgraced group is set to eat its
vomit by begging Chief Anenih whom they once taunted with “no man is God”
slogan it is certain that they will again shamelessly return to beg Comrade
Oshiomhole for bread once their leader had squandered the billions of naira he
has received from PDP for their defection which is scheduled to take place
during the forthcoming visit of President Jonathan to Benin City. Sure! After
their defection, they will face PDP prosecution until they recant publicly that
“the PDP leader is God”. What a shame!
2. It
is not true that Comrade Governor Oshiomhole has hijacked APC or manipulated
its membership registration and congresses. The truth is: It is Pastor
Ize-Iyamu who desperately wanted to hijack the party and manipulate the process
for his governorship desperation. The following few instances will surfice:
a: Shortly
after the registration of APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu had attempted to
single-handedly nominat Chairman and members of the State Interim Committee as
a ploy for manipulating the party structures towards his governorship
desperation. When he failed to achieve his selfish goal that night, he stormed
out of that meeting to a waiting meeting of PDP leaders in the residence of his
friend along Aiguobasimwin Cresent, GRA, Benin City, where he told them to
prepare for his return to PDP. By 6am that same morning, PDP was already
celebrating in social media that APC was crumbling and that their evil genius
was returning to their fold.
b: Several
months before commencement of registration and having had the privilege of
seeing samples of the registration documents, he had commenced secret
pre-registration of party members across Edo State.
c: When
the actual materials eventually came for registration, he was disappointed as the
Comrade Governor made it impossible for anyone to hijack them. Unconsciously,
Pastor Ize-Iyamu incurred the wrath of vast majority of the party leadership at
ward and Local Government levels when he fought for only his clique to handle
the registration, especially in Orhionmwon Local Government Area; his newly
acquired constituency instead of caring for all as a leader. Again the party
leadership foiled this attempt to hijack the registration process. The result
of his disregard for the majority, promotion of fractional strife, peddling of
false rumors which have often backfired, is the woeful defeat of his group in
the congresses so far.
d: A
former National Officer of ANPP, Alhaji Saliu Momoh from Owan East and the
undersigned, former State Chairman of CPC are Secretary and Publicity Secretary
respectively in the five-man State Interim Management Committee.
Therefore, their claim that Governor Oshiomhole
excluded ANPP and CPC from the interim EXCO is an explosive lie which can only
be told by a pastor who uses his congregation to impersonate as registered
voters in foreign land.
e: Why
did Pastor Ize-Iyamu wait till his group lost woefully at the congresses before
complaining of the party membership registration done several months earlier?
It takes only Ize-Iyamu kind of pastor to lie so shamelessly after he had, at a
peace meeting of APC Orhionmwon LGA leaders held in the residence of Chief John
Oyegun, demamded that the Chairmanship of the party in the local government
area be given freely to his group. Even Chief Oyegun screamed at their
provocative demands and noted that what the group was doing to the sitting
Deputy Governor, Dr. Pius Egberanmwen Odubu, was unfair and could not be
tolerated elsewhere.
f: Pastor
Ize-Iyamu only complains of violence where his “army” is overpowered. It is not
in his interest to draw us into exposition on this issue, at least because he
is a “pastor”.
g: Since
when has Pastor Ize-Iyamu become an advocate of party internal democracy after
he single-handedly handpicked Local Government Chairmanship candidates for
Oredo and Orhionmwon?
h: The
demand of his group for the cancelation of the ward and local government
congresses after they have been defeated despite their boasting that they were
more on ground than others can only be seen as the ranting of a crumbling
political block. They boasted that their group would win the congresses. After
losing, they tried to blackmail the Govvernor into reversing their defect to
victory. When the governor refused to reverse their defeat, they turned round
to accuse him of manipulation.
Conclusively,
here is the truth of the predicament of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and his (dis)
Grace Group also known as Alaghodaro:
Few
hours after the first inauguration of Comrade Governor Adams Oshiohmole as the
Governor of Edo State on November 12, 2008, an overzealous leader of the then
AC (named withheld) took Pastor Iyamu to the then AC godfather where they
proclaimed the pastor as the one who would succeed Comrade Oshiomhole in 2012.
They boasted that Comrade Oshiomhole would only be allowed to serve a single
term. From that moment, the pastor started assuming the role of an incoming
Governor. They spread the news of his anointing to political jobbers who
started rushing to pay allegiance to him as an anointed Governor. He proposed
portfolios, power and contracts to those who impressed him most. But Comrade
Oshiomhole was not and is privy to his anointing. Yet the pastor wants Governor
to uphold his undemocratic anointing by barring every other governorship
aspirants even in the APC, a new party.
Their
plot to defect to PDP where they hope to share more money from the presidential
campaign than they can legitimately earn from APC is no news. When their plot
to defect to PDP if they fail to hijack APC structures was tabled at a
reception held for Pastor Ize-Iyamu at the residence of Hon. Adesotu, PDP Deputy State Chairman few
months ago, APC did not expect that they would delay their defection till now.
But
their waiting for Mr. Fix to pronounce forgiveness on them for old sins kept
them till this date. We will surprise if the duo of Osagie and Chief Tony
Omoaghe expect genuine forgiveness from Mr. Fix.
On
our part, APC women’s wing has been praying God to flush out from the party
scatterers, economic wolfs and infidels who would constitute obstacles to the
developmental strides of Comrade Governor. We can only now thank the women wing
for the efficacy of their prayers.
We
advise the Comrade Governor not to submit to their blackmail.
On
their demand for apology from the Comrade Governor to Chief Oyegun, we submit
that the Ize-Iyamu group dragged the name of the Leader to the mud by rebuffing
all his entreaties for peace and harmony in Edo South, especially in Orhionmwon
Local Government Area.
Governor
Oshiomhole has shown more respect for Chief Oyegun than Pastor Ize-Iyamu group
that has tried to portray Oyegun as their factional leader. If they believed
that the Governor owned Chief Oyegun apology why did they not say it at the
meeting where the alleged offence was committed?
Edo
APC will be better off without traitors and desperadoes in its midst.
Comrade
Godwin Erhahon
Interim
State Publicity Secretary
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