Guber Primary Election: Agba Support Groups petition APC National Chair, demand Edo State Acting Chairman, Tenebe, to recuse himself

Ahead of the scheduled February 17 governorship primary election of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Prince Clem Agba Support Groups have demanded that the state acting chairman of the party, Jarret Tenebe, should recuse himself from the process.

This was the crux of a letter, dated February 5, 2024, signed by the Coordinator of the groups, Dr. Solomon Igbafe which was submitted to the National Chairman of the APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje.

The letter, which was made open, was entitled: “The need for the acting chairman of the All Progressive Congress(APC) in Edo State, Mr Jarret T,enebe to recuse himself from the process of the conduct of the 2024 governorship primary election.”

Read the letter: “We write on behalf of all the support groups of Prince Clem Agba, the leading governorship aspirant of the APC in the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State.

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“Since the commencement of the APC primary process, Mr Jarret Tenebe who is the current acting chairman of APC has used every opportunity he has with the media to maliciously castigate and speak against the personality and governorship aspiration of Prince Clem Agba due to whatever personal grievance(s) he has with him.

“His actions have not only created unfairness, bias and injustice against Prince Clem Agba and his thousands of supporters in APC, but they have also ridiculed our party in the eyes of the voters who see the continuous public vilification of Prince Clem Agba as an act unbecoming of the head of an opposition party seriously interested in taking over power from the incumbent in Edo State.

“A party chairman in a responsible party like our own ought to display a high sense of neutrality, be unbiased and avoid all acts of rascality capable of setting fire to the party and embarrassing us before the public. Sadly, Mr Jarret Tenebe, has shown the opposite of all this.

“These hatred and prejudice were taken to an unbearable height a few days ago when Mr Tenebe addressed the media and unequivocally singled out Prince Clem Agba again for criticism and media onslaught by claiming that Prince Clem Agba was SCREENED OUT of the APC primary due to alleged indiscipline.

“We are aware that the National Working Committee has said that no screening has been conducted and all aspirants were urged to pick their nomination forms, the State Publicity secretary of the party also re-echoed this point.

“However, this is without prejudice to the committee that was set up by the State leadership to prune the number of aspirants and later recommended six names in which Prince Clem Agba was among the six cleared by the committee.

“Till this moment, Prince Agba is not aware there was a further screening to remove his name or adopt a zoning style that excludes all aspirants from his Senatorial district because both the leadership of the party at the State and National level promised that there will be no zoning and that propelled all aspirants, including Prince Clem Agba to continue their campaigns.

“If Prince Clem Agba was screened out as claimed by Mr Jarret for indiscipline, was he ever given a fair hearing? And was there an opportunity to appeal the decision in line with our party’s constitutional provision?

“We need to make it very clear that Prince Clem Agba never disobeyed the directive of the State leadership of the party that aspirants should not pick nomination forms until the pruning process.

“The truth is that he had already bought his expression of interest form that morning before the directive came. As a former logistics and planning manager with Chevron, he had planned to collect the expression of interest and nomination forms as soon as the party made them available.

“He collected the forms through his representative at circa 11:40 am. He received an sms from the party that no aspirant should pick the forms almost an hour later and he promptly called the state secretary to inform him of his collection of the forms before he got the directive. Attached herewith is the screenshot showing the time the forms were collected from the office of the National Organizing Secretary and when the sms was received.

“For the avoidance of doubt, it is on record that Prince Clem Agba is the only aspirant in APC who has shown the highest level of discipline. He is a founding member of APC who has never decamped from the party and has never been found wanting for any offence or acts of indiscipline in the party.

“It is also on record that Prince Clem Agba remains one of the highest financiers of the party right from the formation stage to this level. We will challenge Mr Jarret Tenebe to show us any of the aspirants who have displayed the highest level of party discipline, loyalty, commitment, consistency and support like Prince Clem Agba.

“It is clear that Mr Tenebe has shown his bias against Prince Clem Agba and has used his position to try and discredit his candidacy. This is not only unfair, but it also goes against the principles of fairness and justice that our party stands for.

“Of concern is also the report that the LGA party Chairman, obviously inferring from Jarret said the party decision was to queue behind Dennis Idahosa.

“Therefore, we call on the National Chairman and the National Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress to intervene in this matter and ensure that Mr Jarret Tenebe recuses himself from the conduct of the 2024 governorship primary in Edo State.

“His actions have shown that he cannot be impartial and fair in this process, and it is important for the integrity of the party that he steps aside.

“We believe that a free and fair primary process is essential for the success of our party in the upcoming governorship election, and we urge the National Chairman and the NWC to take swift action in this matter.

“Thank you for your anticipated attention to this important issue.”

Sincerely,
Dr. Solomon Igbafe
Coordinator, PCA Support Groups