Edo APC guber primary: This is just a waste of time, money, resources and even goodwill, it won’t stand –Ojezua

The All Progressives Congress (APC) yesterday held its primary for the September governorship election in Edo State amid high level controversy. Anslem Ojezua, who is the court affirmed APC chairman in the state, in this exclusive interview, said that what is happening in the state in the name of primary is a nullity and a complete waste of time, resources and the goodwill the party has garnered in the state over the years. He said issues about the mode of primary and those qualified to conduct it and be part of it are matters pending in various courts, which may make the party the loser after everything. PATRICK OKOHUE spoke with him

**********Yesterday Sunday, a report indicated that you and members of your executive will not be part of today’s’ governorship primary in the state, is that still the position of things?

That is correct

***********If you as the party chairman in the state is not part of the primary and your executive members are not part of the primary, is that not to say that the primary is actually not holding?

That is exactly what we are saying, that what they are doing is their own, it’s not APC Edo State, we know the mode of primary that we chose and we believe that we are entitled to our choice according to the dictates of our party, so for us to be sacrificed just to satisfy the whims of an individual is unacceptable to us, we will not accept it, we are in court.

**********In court against this mode of primary?

Yes

*********So, what does this portend for the APC, because it is not likely that your executive will be given the opportunity to hold another primary in the mode it desires?

Let me even say now that the people organising this one are pretending to have the authority to do so, they don’t have it. Those that came here now were sent by Hilliard Eta, who is a national vice chairman of the party, he is not the acting national chairman, the acting national chairman is Victor Giadom and that is appointed by court order.

**********But Victor Giadom has been suspended by his own state, how do we relate all of these?

That one is politics, do you know who those people are, that said they suspended him, do you know them? Anybody can just wake up and say I suspend you, I expel you, I do this, I do that, but the one that I know that has the force of law is a court order properly so delivered, that one I cannot question, unless such order is vacated and that wasn’t the case, so why are they behaving like serial lawbreakers, why can’t they do the right thing at anytime, this is the point and then at the end they will blame everybody for their own tragedy. For me this is just a waste of time, money, resources and even goodwill, the goodwill of the party has been terribly eroded in this state, terribly.

*********The situation from this point seems like if a proper primary is not conducted by the APC, the party may not even be part of the election in Edo State, do you see it from that point?

That is what the leadership of the party in Abuja should be told, I don’t know what their plan is, but being executed here in Benin is a tragic situation, I feel so sad about it.

***********With what is happening in Edo State now and the fall out in the party all over the country as a result of the governorship interest in Edo State, does that not paint Edo politics black in the eyes of other Nigerians?

If somebody is interested in a state, is it not for the betterment of the state? But with this interest of APC we don’t need that kind of interest. Any interest that is antithetical to the development of the state should be resisted. This is outrageous, I have never seen this kind of impunity in my political life, I haven’t seen it.

************With this development, can we be right to assume it will make you or members of your executive support Governor Godwin Obaseki’s ambition, though he is running on another party platform?

Well, I think that is something that we will have to sit down and talk about, but at the moment we are still talking about how we can get an acceptable candidate for our party, that is the issue.

**********The last time we spoke you said the party executive in the state was going to take a position on the way forward the next day, what was that position?

The decision we took was that we were going to stay in the party, we have a mandate of four years and we intend to spend out mandate, not withstanding that our support for the governor has come to naught because he has been forced out of the party. We have to work within the framework of the party that is how it works.

***********Since as you said the APC is pushing its candidate from the wrong camp, what does that portend for the immediate future of the party in the state?

They are running a great risk, because they know that this matter is in court, they are aware, so they know what they are doing. The person in whose interest they are doing all these I am beginning to wonder if they are really doing it in his interest, I have my doubt about that, because the level of recklessness, impunity, arrogance tells me that perhaps there is a hidden agenda that none of us knows of including the beneficiary of all these that they are doing.

***********Last week I heard an unconfirmed report that said there was a court ruling that the candidate that most leaders involved in this are fronting is not a member of the APC, is that true?

No, the court has not ruled, it only adjourned for judgement, the court has not ruled.

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**********But, can you confirm whether or not he is a member of your party?

Well, he admitted that he didn’t register with his ward, that he registered online, but we know that the party does not have facility for online registration yet, this is a party that recently in March advertised for vendors who will come to help them establish portal for online registration, though I really don’t know, he has to tell us how he did it, because the one we know is that the party is still looking for who will help them set up something that will enable it, so I don’t know, the matter is in court, so we await the court decision.