By Okhide Em’ya David
Edo state chapter of the All Progressive Congress, (APC) has petitioned the National Secretariat of the party to reverse the appointment of Senator Domingo Obende as Chairman, Niger State Registration committee because “he is not a member of the APC.”
In a statement signed by Col David Imuse, Rtd, who is the Chairman, Caretaker Committee of the APC the party said the petition became necessary because, “Obende’s appointment is causing a lot of ripples in Edo State because Senator Domingo Obende has since June last year ceased to be a member of our party in Akoko-Edo local government area of the state”
The statement read in part:
“For anti-party activities which were clearly aimed at bringing the APC into hatred and disunity amongst members and disorganization of the APC party structure in ward 2 in favour of the PDP, Obende was duly supended from the party by the Executive members of his ward in 2020.
“We are not aware that Mr Obende’s suspension has been lifted, and that is obviously because he refused to purge himself of his gross involvement in anti-party activities especially his continuous encouragement of factionalization of the APC in ward 2 of Akoko Local Government Area of Edo State.
“Rather, Senator Obende got all his supporters in his Akoko-Edo LGA to decamp to PDP in 2020. Even the money for the governorship election brought by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP for the election in his local government area was disbursed in his residence at Igarra.
“The fact is Obende has since ceased to be a member of APC. Most of our party leaders and faithfuls in Edo State are threatening to jeopardize the forthcoming registration exercise and exit the party en mass if disloyalty is now the hallmark of recognition in the APC .
“It is for the interest of our party, that Domingo Obende’s appointment be reversed. The morale of our members right now is at it’s lowest ebb. If Mr. Obende wants to revalidate his membership of the APC, he can do so in his unit during the forthcoming registration exercise”.
