By Ebere Levi
Multiple party sources have informed The Source that vested interests within the All Progressives Congress, APC, have shifted their battle for the control of the party to Edo, and is now using the September 19 gubernatorial election in the state as a dress rehearsal for the titanic battle for the party’s soul ahead the 2023 election.
“We Will Ensure Edo is Out of Their Reach”
A faction of the party opposed to the National Leader, Ahmed Bola Tinubu, and the deposed National Chairman, Adam Oshiohmole, this magazine has been told, is bent on denying the pro- Tinubu/ Oshiohmole faction a foothold in Edo.
A party insider quoted a very senior party chieftain, and one of the prime movers of the anti- Tinubu/Oshiohmole faction, as vowing thus: “Tinubu and his allies, including our former National Chairman, remain members of our great party, but their plot to annex the party and pocket it has been effectively checkmated.Therefore, we will ensure that Edo is out of their reach, even if it means cutting our nose to spite our face, so be it”
A Gathering Storm
A credible party source informs that the anti- Tinubu/Oshiohmole faction is working from within to ensure that the APC candidate for the Edo election, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, is defeated by governor Godwin Obaseki who is now a PDP governor having defected to the party last month, following his disqualification from the APC guber primary, by the now sacked Oshiohmole led National Working Committee, NWC, of the party.
“What is currently playing out in APC, as regards the Edo governorship election, is “APC against APC”, our source revealed.
Continuing, he further informs: “The internal APC forces against Oshiohmole and Tinubu are, also, by extension against the victory of Ize Iyamu.Therefore, they won’t mind Obaseki’s victory in order to thwart Tinubu/Oshiohmole ascendancy”
“Ize-Iyamu’s Victory is Tinubu/Oshiohmole”
Some elements within the APC who fought to dethrone Oshiomole are emphatic that he was sacked as National Chairman to prevent him from handing over the party’s structure to Tinubu.They allege that before he was sacked, Oshiohmole was working towards handing the 2023 APC Presidential ticket to the former Lagos state governor.
A party chieftain told The Source: “Having succeeded in stopping Oshiohmole on his track, it will be bad politics to support anything, or anybody, capable of giving him a lifeline, politically.
“Its a common knowledge that Ize-Iyamu is his candidate, his victory, therefore, means Oshiohmole’s victory; it will also be Tinubu’s victory. Edo in the kitty of the Tinubu/Oshiohmole alliance could alter the 2023 calculations as regards our party’s presidential ticket and we won’t allow this happen. And we will be ready to sacrifice Edo to stop it”
Some National Assembly Members, Governors, others won’t Campaign for Ize-Iyamu
Competent sources close to the national leadership of the party confided in the magazine that as a result of the wide crack on the APC’s wall, some party stalwarts, listed as members of the APC campaign council for Edo, have distanced themselves from the Ize-Iyamu campaign.
Said one of the sources: “Though the governor Mai Mala Buni-led National Caretaker leadership of APC has inaugurated Edo Governorship Campaign Council, I can tell you, for free, that many of those listed as members including National Assembly members, Governors and party senior chieftains who are not in the Tinubu/Oshiohmole faction, have since distanced themselves from the Ize-Iyamu campaign.
“They are neither openly, nor discreetly, supporting the APC guber candidate financially and morally”
Anti- Ize-Iyamu Court Case Looms
This Magazine learnt that as part of the bid to scuttle Ize- Iyamu’s chances, and by extension, hurt the Tinubu/Oshiohmole faction, a faction of the party in Edo still loyal to Governor Obaseki, is being positioned to obtain a restraining order from a High court, a day to the election, stopping the APC candidate from contesting in the election on the grounds that the Edo APC faction that granted him waiver, was illegally constituted at the time it gave him the waiver.
Ize-Iyamu, a founding APC member, defected to the People’s Democratic party, PDP in 2016 under which platform he contested that year’s Edo governorship election. He, however, returned to the APC a few months ago to contest the September 19 election.
The Broom is Still Closely knitted, Solidly Behind Ize-Iyamu
Meanwhile, a member of the National Caretaker Committee of the APC has pooh-poohed insinuations of internal insurrection against Ize- Iyamu, insisting that every single APC member is solidly behind him.
“Like every big political party, there are minor family disagreements in the APC, but that is not to suggest that internal insurrection is in the offing, especially as it concerns the Edo election.
I can assure you that the the broom is still a formidable bunch, still closely knit, and solidly behind its candidate in Edo. Every single APC member is solidly behind Ize-Iyamu”, he told The Source.
