Inordinate ambition of national chairman responsible for Edo APC crisis ― Edo speaker – Tribune Online
The Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Frank Okiye has blamed Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) for orchestrating the crisis currently rocking both the House and the Edo State branch of the party.
Okiye who spoke at a news briefing in Benin yesterday charge that Oshiomhole’s attempt to dictate the political affairs of the state at the expense of Governor Godwin Obaseki was also a major cause of the crisis.
The speaker explained that the crisis had been brewing even before the proclamation letter for the inauguration of the 7th State House of Assembly by the state Governor Obaseki on June 17 last year.
ALSO READ: Nigerian political leaders lack commitment to people ― Don
Only 10 of the 24 lawmakers who made themselves available for the inauguration are presently sitting while the remaining 14 have chosen to stay on the ground that they were not invited for the night time inauguration.
Okiye said: “It is important to make clear that the crisis which was an avoidable one was caused by the inordinate ambition of the national chairman (Adams Oshiomle) to dictate the political space at the expense of the governor who is the leader of our party in the state. And he laid to rest godfatherism in Edo State during his tenure and it will never resurrect,”
He said the declaration of the seat of the absentee members-elect vacant was not to hurt anybody but to bring sanity and responsibility to politics and governance in the state as well as to assert the importance of the legislative arm.
“We must equally reckon with the sad truth that, the times and opportunities lost to these political disagreements and the obvious failure of our brothers to give their constituencies a mandated representation, can never be recovered again,”.
“This is a big disservice to the people of their constituencies and the mandate given to them. This is not a fair political game. It is unacceptable” he said.
According to him, if we as politicians and elected officials must fight, and disagree we must never do so to the disadvantage of the good of the state and the people.
He continued: “It is irresponsible, unthoughtful and indeed an unpardonable sin, to abdicate responsibilities under any guise. It irresponsible to indulge in retrogressive politics at the expense of the people.”