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South-South APC dumps Oshiomhole, insists on NEC meeting
This is not the best of times for the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress as faction of leaders of the party from the South-South have thrown their support behind the acting National Secretary of the party to assume the position of acting National Chairman of the ruling party.
In a clear dumping of the embattled National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, the leaders also insisted that the party’s National Executive Committee meeting scheduled for next Tuesday must hold as scheduled.
The zonal caucus meeting, which ended on Thursday night in Abuja, had four serving Ministers from the zone namely; Rotimi Amaechi (Transport), Osagie Ehanire (Health), Festus Keyamo (State, Labour) and Goddy Jeddy Agba (State, Power) in attendance.
Also present at the meeting were former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba; former Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Nguru Usani; and ex-NIMASA boss, Dakuku Peterside, amongst others.
Oshiomhole, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege and the APC National Vice-Chairman, South-South, Hilliard Eta, were absent.
It would be recalled that Oshiomhole, in the midst of his travails, had insinuated that a number of state governors, and ministers were behind the plot to sack him as national chairman of the APC.
The power play is further buoyed by the battle for positioning towards the 2023 general elections.
The factional APC leaders, in a communique released at the end of the meeting, noted that the NEC is the only organ to resolve the APC crisis.
The communique, which was read on behalf of the leaders by the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki read in part: “At the meeting, the leaders of the zone deliberated extensively on situation in the party and at the end of the meeting, they adopted the following resolutions:
“That as a party, we commend our brother, the Acting Chairman of the APC, Victor Giadom, for rising to the occasion by providing leadership for the party in this trying times.
“That we fully support the convening of the National Executive Committee meeting on Tuesday, March 17th, as the NEC is the only recognised organ under the constitution of our party to resolve the APC crisis.
“That we insist that the party should respect the current zoning arrangement by retaining the chairmanship of our great party in the South-South zone even in an acting capacity.
“We resolved that the most senior officer of the party from the zone, being the National Acting Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom, should be confirmed Acting National Chairman for the time being.
“We urged all our brothers and sisters from the zone to fully embrace the NEC meeting and not boycott the emergency NEC meeting, which has been slated for Tuesday, March 17th. Because boycott in a democratic environment is always counterproductive.”