Edo APC officer’s house burnt as members seek cancellation of party congress

By OLALEKAN BADMOS

The dust raised by the congresses of the All Progressive Congress (APC) held to elect party officers at the ward level is yet to settle as members of the party in Edo state trooped out in their thousands on Wednesday to protest the conduct and seek reversal of theirs held previous day.

Already, unknown persons have set the house of the state interim treasurer, Theophilus Okoh, on fire at the early hours of Wednesday.

The  protest against the congress was led by a Benin palace chief, Amos Osunbor, who threatened to cause an exodus of his followers to an alternative party if the last APC congress in the state was not cancelled.

The razing of Okoh's house which reportedly occurred at about 2.30 am is believed to be a fall-out of contentious Ward Congresses in Edo Central.

A party ward leader, Mr. Ololo Okoeki, who described the party congress in his ward as hitch-free, said he received phone calls from an unknown caller, threatening his life.

He added that he had also sighted about two vehicles racing down to Okoh's residentce and that no sooner he saw the vehicles, he got a call that the building has been set ablaze.

“Those who think they can achieve anything by violence, let's see how far they can go," Okoh said while reacting to the incident.

Also in the protest against the congress are Nosa Adams, Evelyn Igbafe and three members of the State House of Assembly, who called for the dissolution of the committee sent from Abuja to handle the exercise.

"The committee members became invisible. There were no committee members even when we were asked to send names. And due to the absence of the congress committee members no material was on ground to record the results.

"As if the whole exercise was designed to fail, they sponsored violence, armed thugs beat up and unleashed mayhem on fellow party members. So we call for the immediate cancellation of the purported congress and dissolution of the committee in charge of the exercise," Osunbor said.

The State Chairman of the party, Osaro Idah, however, described the congress as a huge success, alleging that those behind the disruption witnessed were not members of the party.

"We have earlier received the information that some leaders of the opposition parties across the state mobilized thugs to destabilize our ward congress. I can say the ward congress is 99 per cent peaceful and it is the best congress we have ever done," he said.