South-South APC backs Oshiomhole, as Obaseki shuns party elders

The Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki was notably absent as leaders and elders of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from the South-South part of the country met in Abuja on Thursday night.

The meeting examined the crisis bedeviling the party in Edo and Cross River states, and called on members to support the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole.

At the meeting presided over by the national vice-chairman of the APC in South-South, Hillard Eta, some of the party chieftains decried that some party members in the zone were working against Oshiomhole.

Eta, during the meeting, pleaded with aggrieved members to sheathe their swords and work together.

“In Edo and Rivers states, we must find a solution to the problem. I want to beg all warring parties to sheathe their swords,” he said.

Also speaking, the deputy president of the Nigerian Senate, Ovie Omo Agege said Oshiomhole “is our own that must not be antagonized.”

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He, therefore, urged party members from the zone to give their support for the embattled APC national chairman.

“Why are we antagonising our own? We have to stand by him. The party in the zone hasn’t fared very well. It is important to close ranks against the raging war,” Omo Agege said.

Oshiomhole, when he addressed the members, said he was pleased with the large turnout of members for the meeting despite the disparagement that trailed the open invitation to all members of the South-South caucus.

Oshiomhole, who was also a former governor of Edo, acknowledged the crisis facing the APC in the state but said he was making genuine efforts for reconciliation.

The meeting at the end elected Omo-Agege as South-South APC leader.

It also set up a committee to look into the crisis rocking the Edo and Cross River states’ chapters of the party.

Aside, Obaseki who was conspicuously absent from the meeting, other notable members of the party also not present include the ministers of Niger Delta Affairs and Transportation, Godswill Akpabio and Rotimi Amaechi, respectively.

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