Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has dismissed claims that he is not a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC saying those disputing his membership of the party are only engaging in a fruitless exercise.
A statement signed by the Director of Communication and Media to Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation, John Mayaki, said, “Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu was one of those who not only formed the APC but drafted the constitution of the APC.
“When Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and others were putting the party together, the governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, was not there and nowhere to be found; so how do you expect a man who should be a beneficiary of a house that he helped to build being stopped from gaining access into the house?
“However, knowing the rules, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu went to his ward chairman, Mr Ogbebor, in Ugboko ward in Orhiomwon to say he and his teeming followers were coming back home, and he was given the party card.”
The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to intervene in the crisis, alleging that the party’s National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, was bent on destroying the President’s anti-corruption legacy.
The deputy governor also alleged that Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who has also obtained the form for the election from the APC and is the consensus aspirant for a faction of the party, is not a registered member of Edo APC, and as such not qualified to contest the election.
“Ize-Iyamu is not a member of the Edo APC because he is not registered in his ward. The constitution is clear on who a member is. He agreed to the fact that he didn’t register at the ward and his ward chairman didn’t register him.
“The constitution says for one to be a member of the APC in the state, he or she must be a registered member of the party in his or her ward,” he said on Friday.