Alledged double standard by Anselm Ojezua: Ignore Ojezua,----Ize Iyamu tells Buni

 Alleged double standard by Anselm Ojezua Ize Iyamu asks Buni to ignore Anselm Ojezua 

Okhide Em'ya David 

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the September 19 election in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has urged the National Caretaker Chairman of the APC, Mai Mala Buni, to ignore the tirades of a former factional Chairman of the party in Edo, Anselm Ojezua, describing him as a political double-dealer, who cannot be trusted.

Buni, the Governor of Yobe State, and members of his national caretaker committee, last week, dissolved APC executives at the ward, local government and state levels nationwide, thereby formally constituting caretaker committees, pending when congresses would be conducted.

Ize-Iyamu, a former Secretary to the Edo State Government (SSG), Wednesday in an online statement by his Special Adviser on Media, Prince John Mayaki, declared that Ojezua was planted as a mole in the APC by Governor Godwin Obaseki, when he defected to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in order to do maximum damage to the party (APC), before joining Obaseki in the PDP.

Ojezua, few days ago, criticised the leadership of Buni and members of his caretaker and extra-ordinary congress committee for allegedly failing to deliver on their mandates.

Edo governorship candidate of APC, however, dismissed Ojezua’s diatribe against the national leadership of the APC, while insisting that he was a spoiler.

He said: “Ojezua undermined the APC in Edo State and the robust efforts and achievements of the Mai Mala Buni’s leadership. As a mole planted to destroy the party, he took the party to court, while claiming leadership and running a parallel secretariat funded by Obaseki of the opposition PDP to undermine the authority of the party and the instructions of President Muhammadu Buhari.

“Ojezua, who claimed to be Edo State Chairman of APC, before last week’s dissolution of the executive by the national leadership of the party, never supported my candidature in the September 19 governorship election, even when the party’s flag was handed to me by President Muhammadu Buhari, and supported by the National leadership of the APC.

“Ojezua continued his support for the candidate of the opposition PDP (Obaseki), an attempt to undermine the task of the caretaker and extra-ordinary congress committee. Rather than build, Ojezua invested resources, efforts and energy to fragment Edo APC. Rather than consolidate, Ojezua relentlessly weakened and undermined the arduous tasks of the Governor Mai-Mala Buni-led caretaker/extra-ordinary national convention planning committee.

“On December 2, 2020, during the inauguration of a PDP chieftain, Osarodion Ogie, as the Secretary to Edo State Government (SSG) in Benin City, Ojezua, who paraded himself as Edo State Chairmen of APC, was seen in a group photograph released by the PDP-led Edo government, in what signified that ‘all was not well’ with his own party (APC), which has attracted negative reactions, with a lot of APC faithful disappointed in Ojezua’s political debauchery and systematic attempts to annihilate the APC and possibly fuse it into the PDP in Edo State.”

Ize-Iyamu also stated that he believed in Buni’s leadership to not only reorganise and reposition the APC nationwide but to also flush out the moles and saboteurs within the party, declaring that the enemies of progress owe their allegiance to their paymasters in other political parties, especially the PDP.

Edo governorship candidate of the APC thanked the national caretaker chairman of the party for restoring orderliness in APC in Edo state by installing a purposeful leadership, under Col. David Imuse (rtd.), who he said had already galvanised members of the party in the state and developing a clear roadmap to strengthen Edo APC.