Some aggrieved women of Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress have passed a vote of no confidence on the National Working Committee of the party for allegedly promoting nepotism and tyranny in the party.
Addressing journalists in Benin on Friday, the women accused the leadership of the party, led by its National Chairman and former governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole, of allegedly subverting the aspirations of female party members with impunity.
They also said that the controversial primaries conducted by the NWC “without recourse to equity, justice and fair play” exposed the APC as “a party of hawks, swallowing chickens as its prey.”
The coordinator of the aggrieved group and State Organising Secretary of the party, Aisosa Amadasun, noted that female aspirants across the state were not only subjected to harrowing experiences, by being charged exorbitant fees for the collection of nomination forms but also screened out, even when they were “eminently qualified.”
Amadasun lamented that about 10 women from the three senatorial districts were denied tickets by the national leadership of the APC, in spite of their sacrifices.
She said, “The level of impunity has assumed a frightening dimension under the leadership of our national chairman, who once prided himself as an apostle of change and the curative medicine to ‘godfatherism’.
“The primaries conducted so far by the leadership of the APC across the 36 states of the country are not only shameful, disgraceful, undemocratic, and a charade, but also threw many states into mayhem and shocked the foundation of the party and out it on the edge of a precipice.
“Any party that fails to recognise the inputs of women and reward them with positions commensurate to their painstaking efforts to ensure victory is not only doomed but will suffer defeat.”
She, however, vowed that the women would no longer play second fiddle to the men who used them as “campaign tools”.
She also called on President Muhammadu Buhari to take pragmatic steps to remedy the injustice done to them, adding that proper reconciliation was needed to ensure victory for the party in the 2019 general elections.