Edo APC in the eye of the storm: Ex Speaker demands N500m damages from APC scribe

The All Progressives Congress in Edo State seems to be birthing in an endless stormy water with the party becoming a nest of commotion.

There is hardly a day that passes by without certainty of quarrel as sanity seems to have taking the back seat while anarchy  reigns supreme in the party.

It is said that when two elephants fight, the grass would have to bear the sufferings and probably may never recover from it. The party is diametrically opposed to itself.

Recall that NewsTrack had reported the disagreement between APC National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole and Governor Godwin Obaseki over a scheduled rally in Edo State to welcome new entrants into APC. Obaseki had feign ignorance of any rally but spoke more on the security of the people of the state, insisting that National headquarters of the party does have to plan party programmes in the state without the knowledge of the state. Read:

IT’S FIGHT TO FINISH: Oshiomhole, Obaseki at each other’s jugular over APC rally

It is the fallout that is brewing another crisis between an ex Speaker and former secretary of APC.

Recall that the state had been thrown into crises following Governor Godwin Obaseki’s decision to inaugurate of nine House of Assembly members said to be loyal to him.

According to reports in the Nigerian Vanguard While the governor and the party leadership prefer Okiye, the 19 lawmakers are angling for Edoror.

Vanguard  reported that at the sitting of the members-elect, the Clerk proclaimed the House, the lawmakers elected Frank Okiye (Esan North East Constituency I) as their Speaker against Oshiomhole’s preferred candidate of Victor Edoror, while Yekini Idiaye (Akoko-Edo Constituency I) was also elected Deputy Speaker.

The Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Mr. Paul Ohonbamu, dismissed as false allegations that the governor trying to impose a leadership on the House, adding that the governor was aligning with the party’s position.

He said the party does not want what befell the Sixth Assembly where they had four speakers in four years to recur.

However, the party had its way on Monday night with the election of Okiye.

However, the stage for instability has been set as the 19 members-elect are said to be insisting on independence of the House.

It was gathered that a team of lawyers were assembled earlier in the day to study the implication of the planned inauguration before three lawmakers were said to have been invited for a meeting and in the process their phones were allegedly taken from them and then they were driven to the House of Assembly and sworn in by the Clerk.

While the National Assembly have made effort to resolve this crisis, it failed which is not unconnected with the court ruling insisting that there has legislative activities in the legislative arm of government.

Still treading on this path of bickering and vendetta, former Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon Kabiru Adjoto, has asked suspended Secretary of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State, Mr. Lawrence Okah to pay him N500m as irreparable damage done to his person and reputation.

Adjoto threatened to commence legal actions against Okah if the payment was not made within seven days.

Okah had on Tuesday alleged that the Edo State Government has secured the services of Adjoto and Haruna to recruit thugs from Kogi and Delta States for the purposes of disrupting the planned mega rally to receive PDP defectors.

Hon Adojoto in a letter by his lawyer, Ray Okezie, said he is a respected leader of the APC in Edo State.

He claimed that the statement credited to Okah exposed him to public opprobrium and made him to be viewed as a thug, killer and very violent person.

The former Speaker asked Okah to within seven days retract the statement in the same number of dailies it was published of face legal action.

Meanwhile, with the continued war in APC against APC, one wonders how such scattered house can prevail in free and fair election.