Edo ADC Crisis Deepens Over State Chairmanship

The crisis in the Edo State chapter of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) has escalated over state chairmanship of the party.

Addressing journalists in Benin yesterday, a member of the ADC National Executive Council (NEC), Senator Roland Owie, disclosed that the chairmanship of the Edo ADC was zoned to Edo South which subsequently micro-zoned the position to Oredo local government area.

He explained that following the development two aspirants, Dr Mike Ehima and Tony Alile indicated their interests to contest for the office, necessitating a mini primary conducted for them.

Senator Owie stated that at the end of the exercise, Dr Ehima scored 75 votes while his opponent, Tony Alile polled 4 votes.

He told journalists that information reaching him and the party indicated that Chief John Odigie-Oyegun was adopting another chairman in place of Dr Ehima at the national office of the party in Abuja.

“Oyegun cannot be a national leader and senatorial leader; he should choose one. Oyegun should stop playing games”, Owie said, calling on the NEC of the ADC to call Oyegun to order.

On the recently conducted local government congresses, Senator Owie said the exercise was peaceful and unanimous in some local governments, stressing “but the State is what we are hammering on now.”

But reacting to Senator Owie’s allegation, Chief Oyegun said, “I am not the state congress officer appointed by the national headquarters Abuja to oversee the congress. It is only the congress officer that can speak on that, maybe he will speak tomorrow.”

On a statement by Kelly Odion, the former state chairman of the ADC, insisting that he remains the chairman of the party in Edo and that the local government congresses were a sham, Chief Oyegun said, “I don’t know where he got that from, it is between him and Abuja, I don’t know anything about that.

“And you know he is a member of another ADC in Abuja. Maybe that is where he got that from.”