BENIN CITY – Leaders of All Progressives Congress, APC at all levels including the ward and Local Government Executives have been assured that nobody has the power to delist them from the party register.

The assurance was given by no other person than the Edo State Deputy Governor, Rt Hon Comrade Philip when he met with party leaders from across the 11 wards and in Sabogida-Ora, head quarters of Owan West Local Government.

Speaking at a town hall meeting with ward leaders, Shaibu said he came to allay their fears of the alleged threat by some persons to delist party leaders from the register. ” I came to fraternize with you and reassure you of what the party constitution stands for and also to let you know that what you heard was fake news, nobody can take your names off the register.”

He noted that the essence of the meeting was to, “Clear doubts that we are hearing from some of our party people who are being threatened by some people in Abuja that their names would be removed from the All Progressives Congress (APC) party register if they don’t stop supporting the Governor.

” I have come to reassure you that nobody from Abuja can remove your names from the wards they registered because there is a process for suspension, there is a process for even expulsion. No one can just remove your name from any ward executive list.

No national working committee member can do that. For even the dead, there is a process for replacing their names from the register not to talk of those who are living.”

Accusing Comrade Adams Oshiomhole for being the cause of all the disagreements within the APC fold in the state, Shaibu ssid: “We have discovered that nobody is contesting against Governor Godwin Obaseki except Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. He is the only contestant who is contesting with Governor Godwin Obaseki in the forth coming election in Edo State.

He is the only one going round doing rallies. If he is not interested in governorship why is he going round one rally to another even when the Governor has banned rallies?

The leader of the party in the state, the Governor of the state and of the party would defend all of them with the power given to him as Governor and leader of the party and governor of the state. I have just come to reassure you of that.”

Going down memory lane on political issues, he said “When we were doing congresses and even after it, did you remember that they wanted to change your names, did they succeed? If they could not succeed at that time why do you think they will succeed now?

Sometimes when people see that all they setout to do is failing, they resort to threats to see if people can fall prey. This is what is happening now. Comrade Adams Oshiomhole remains the suspended Chairman of the APC, even when he was Chairman, he could not remove your names from the list. So, why now?

The party has its own rules and regulations, above all, constitution. One man cannot decide the faith of all of us. That he is chairman does not give him the power to say ‘if you don’t follow me, i remove your names.’ He is not the one that elected you. Even me, I cannot remove your names because there are rules that you must follow to remove peoples names.

If people can change names, how come Oshiomhole was suspended from Ward 10 in Etsako West Local Government Area where he comes from and the chairman that suspended a national chairman, his name has not been removed from the list? He is still the chairman of ward 10.

All those people threatening you are doing this because you are more powerful than them. The only thing they feel they can do is to threaten you. When the time comes, you will take them out; hold meetings and suspend them because their actions are anti-party. Whoever threatens you is threatening the party.

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The President has told us that we must build our party from the scratch to the top; from the very bottom up to the top. Is it not from wards that everything starts? Who is the president referring to? Is it not the ward executives?

If the president who is the leader of the party in Nigeria can say that we build the party from the ward and the constitution of the party says for you to suspend anybody, you must start from the ward. So you must know who has the power?

If you have the power at ward level why must you allow anyone to push you around? The power of APC is in your hands. You are the ones that can change and even suspend them or expel them.

The party constitution did not say one national chairman or that one national committee would suspend you or remove your name from the register. There are processes. As you were elected your names are already gazetted.

So, to remove any of you from the APC list we must go through the congress of the party but first we are informed of this through writing at the ward level which is later sent to the Local government area (LGA) who send it to the state who in turn send to national, who at the convention or national executive council (NEC) meeting, would now decide on it. That is the process.

One man cannot sit down in one office and make critical decisions concerning the fate of others. I just want to tell you not to panic, the power is in your hands. All our people that are afraid, please let them know the processes for removing names from the register. The power of the party is in the ward. All processes start from the ward and end at the national executive council of our party, not national working committee.

The president, his vice and all the governors are members of the NEC where our governor would sit with others and somebody says they want to deal with you? They don’t have the power based on the process I just explained to you.”

He told them to exercise the powers they hold as ward leaders, “I am here to reassure you that you are not only authentic but the constitution of the APC made you authentic since you went through the process of election and you were elected. And, you are the ones that elected the president, the last House of Assembly members and even our chairman and other political office holders. You are the authentic leaders that chose us.

After you people chose us, how can we come back to remove your names? I stood with you when your names were not gazetted and you succeeded. I am still standing by you. No one should use the power they would have used to attract infrastructural development to your area and use such power to oppress you. We will stand against them and take them out of the system by the power of God.”

Ventilating on the need for continuity in government Shaibu reaffirmed, “Obaseki has taken governance to the next level. Oshiomhole told us that Obaseki would stabilize and redefine the economy of Edo State. We pay our workers as at when due.”

Chairman Owan West, Hon. Frank Ilaboya who was elated by the clarifications affirmed, “I want to appreciate the Deputy Governor for coming to our Local Government Area (LGA) to give our executive confidence.

There has been so much threat that something will be done to them but today, we are happy. He has come to clear the air. He has assured them that they are there and there forever. They are going to exercise their civic responsibilities.

They, as executive, remain so. That has been the crux of the matter. Even when we were organizing this meeting today some of them were called and told not to come that their names would be removed from the executive list.

The Deputy Governor has been able to say ‘this is where we are going’ and we are very happy about it. I am happy he has nailed the issue on its head and everyone is happy. We appreciate him for this. We also appreciate the fact that we are the first Local Government Area he is visiting. Their second term in office is non negotiable, that is what we stand for”