Against the backdrop of the resignation of the former speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Elizabeth Ativie, from the All Progressives Congress (APC), the state chapter of the party on Wednesday attributed the resignation to her failure to secure the ticket to contest for the Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde Federal Constituency seat in the 2023 general elections.
Recall that the first female speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly had on Tuesday officially announced her resignation from the party.
Ativie, who did not mention the party she will be defecting to, said her resignation was occasioned by the current unresolved crises currently rocking her Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde/federal constituency as well as the entire Edo State.
She, however, dispelled the claims that she dumped the party because of the failure to secure the Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde federal representatives ticket.
But reacting to the resignation, the state chapter of the party, in a statement made available to newsmen in Benin City, said she came a distant third in the primary election conducted for the constituency seat.
The statement signed by Peter Igbinigie, state publicity secretary of the party, noted that the party conducted the freest, fairest primaries and convention to elect its respective candidates to the various political positions throughout the federation.
Igbinigie alleged that the party was aware of the former speaker’s nocturnal romance with the Labour Party prior to her resignation, an act he opined amounted to anti-party activities.
According to him, to situate her issue in proper podium that her purported resignation from our party was a failed face saving move to cover her sinister, clandestine and aborted surreptitious move to bring our great party to ridicule, odium, opprobrium and manifest disrepute.
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“In the primary for the Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde Federal Constituency, Hon (Mrs), Elizabeth Ativie participated and came a distant third and last in the same election, ably won by Dr (Chief) Billy Osawaru.
“Our party was thrown into political consternation and aghast, when it was discovered that sooner than the result of the primary was released, that Hon Elizabeth Ativie in connivance with her political co-travellers futilely attempted to change the submitted name name of Billy Osawaru duly recognized by our party and INEC that monitored the primary with her name.
“An act that is not only an electoral fraud, which is an infraction on the party constitution, the Electoral Act 2022 and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended, but also a desperate and calculated attempt to bring our chapter of the party to disrepute.
“Consequent upon the discovery of this humongous, disturbing and embarrassing acts, which would have earned her a disgraceful political cum criminal trial with its attendance consequences, she quickly embarked on this more destructive political adventure “,he said.
While noting that the Edo state chapter of the party remain united, he assured that it will not be distracted by the callous and baseless moves in the political space of the state.
He also assured that all women of the party are recognized by both the state and national leadership of the party for all their invaluable contributions to the success and development of the party.
“Our party shall continue to recognize women in our scheme of dealings. It will also be important to state here and now that women have been appointed into key positions in the campaign committees of our presidential candidate and same was replicated in all the campaign committees from State Governorship, Senatorial, House of Representatives to State Assemblies”,he added.
