Why we dumped Edo APC —Ize-Iyamu

BENIN—FORMER Vice Chairman South-South of All Progressives Congress, APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who resigned from the party with his loyalists Monday, yesterday, described as laughable, the tirade from his former party that his obsession for the 2016 governorship race led
to his exit from the party.

Speaking to Vanguard, he said: “I read Osaro Idah who said he is the interim chairman of APC, and that pathological fixation over my rumoured ambition to be governor of Edo State led to my resignation from the party. The man that decamped to APC in Egor, was it because of Ize-Iyamu’s ambition? Abubakar Momoh, who is a member of House of Representatives, was it Ize-Iyamu’s governorship ambition that made him leave the APC also?

“The problem in Edo North that warranted Alhaji Shagadi and Abubakar Momoh to resign, was it Ize-Iyamu’s ambition that caused that? There are fundamental problems in the party. I read them describing those of us who left as actually cancer in the party. By this confession, they
are saying that the party is terminally ill and if they think that the cancer has left because we have left, let me tell them that they will now realise that the cancer has not left because when you have cancer, which is a terminal illness,

what it means is that the party is set to
die.

“In the next few days, you will see more people leaving the party. It is regrettable that a party that we laboured to build is going this way. Unfortunately, the governor is being held hostage by people who have no idea about how a party is run and how a party is managed and their utterances have confirmed that. So the statement credited to Osaro Idah is nonsense, it does not address the issues.

“And what makes you think that because I am in APC, I don’t have a right to see the President? It is a joy, and  a privilege, and there is nothing wrong with interacting with people in other parties. I am not detained in APC, my membership of APC cannot reduce the freedom that the constitution has given to me, to interact and associate. So for him to say that even going to see the PDP leaders and the President amounts to anti-party activity tells you how shallow they
are. Nobody forced us into APC and nobody can detain us in APC.

“I sympathise with some persons in APC, but it is clear to me that as long as they have the current leadership at the state level, the party is doomed. And for some us who have a little political experience, we rather not be there when the party is destroyed and that was why we
left.”