Crisis in Edo ADC ahead of state congress

By Ozioruva Aliu

BARELY four days to its state congress, there is a crisis in the Edo State chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) as some of the leaders are divided on whether to go on with the Congresses from the local levels which began on Tuesday, to comply with the Independent National Electoral Commission’s decision not to recognize the Sen. David Mark”s leadership.

It was gathered that some members of the party have concluded plans to use the congresses to remove the state party Chairman, Mr. Kennedy Odion.

Party sources said Odion’s statement, which opposes the planned conduct of the party’s congresses, triggered the plot to remove him.

Spokesman of the party in the state, Chris Ojeikere, in a statement, accused Odion of plotting to disrupt the congress to elect new leaders and of wanting to extend his stay in office.

Ojeikere said congresses would be conducted lawfully under the direction of its national headquarters, which has informed INEC, set up a committee for that purpose, and urged the members to ignore statements from Odion.

“Any actions or statements from a former Chairman seeking to disrupt this lawful process should be disregarded.

“We therefore call on all loyal ADC members in Edo State to remain focused and continue to participate in the ongoing Congress processes without distraction.”

“Should Mr. Odion persist in his actions, the Party will not hesitate to make public all relevant information regarding his harmful activities within the Party.”

But Odion said the actions of some party members were illegal and insisted that his leadership would not hold congresses.

Odion lamented that materials for the congresses were hijacked and vowed that he would not allow strangers to hijack the party.

He said, “They are doing something illegal. We are in compliance with the INEC decision. INEC said it will not monitor the congress. INEC will not accept what they did not monitor.  I am not doing the congress. It will an effort in f mmutility.

“We don’t know where the Congress material is. They took them somewhere. It is a total hijacking of the process. For those of us who have built the party from the onset, we cannot open our eyes and see strangers take over the party and make away with it. What have they brought to the table? Is it money they are putting into the party? What are the leaders in Edo State doing? They are taking advantage of those things happening elsewhere. What they are doing is not in line with our party’s constitution. They don’t want to stick to due process. I remained Chairman till May 19th, when my first tenure expired.

“The Congress of Local Government and Ward is the responsibility of the state to conduct it. They want to bypass the state to conduct the congress. I don’ t have any reason to disrupt the process if we were on the right path. I am the one to lead the process. We have been raising the alarm, but their agenda was different from what we expected. We never knew they had another agenda.”

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