Four years after the People’s Democratic Party allegedly forcibly removed it from the property, the All Progressive Congress (APC) in Edo State has recovered the building at No. 59, Airport Road, Benin City, the state capital, as its party secretariat.
In a speech shortly after the party secretariat was taken over, Jarrett Tenebe, the chairman of the APC in Edo State, explained that the property was rightfully theirs because the party had renewed the rent for seven years prior to the PDP forcibly taking it away from them, allegedly with the assistance of Godwin Obaseki, the governor of Edo State at the time.
He said, “About 4 years ago, APC made frantic effort to extend the rent age of this particular building which has always been the office of the APC. If you search on google, you will discover that this secretariat still reads “APC’s office”.
“The party in the state approached the national office to arrange so that we will be able to pay for more years for the renting off this facility. The national obliged us and sent us money to renew it for seven years.”
“The Governor then, Godwin Obaseki decamped to PDP and militarily, they took us out of this secretariat, destroyed all our properties, took our vehicles and drove us out of this place.
“At that time, we complained to the Inspector General of Police and he, in his wisdom agreed that we should take over the secretariat. But because the Commissioner of Police in the state was working hand in hand with the then Governor, they refused to allow us access. Then, I was the deputy chairman of APC.”
The Edo State APC chairman also said he came into office with a commitment to reclaim the state for the party and redress all the wrongs done by the PDP and Godwin Obaseki.
“The day I became the chairman of the party in the state, I made two promises to our party faithful; to make sure that APC take over the state and to ensure that all the properties taken from the APC are returned to them.”
“Some few months ago, there was governorship election in this state and everybody can attest to it that Senator Monday Okpebholo emerged as the governor of the state, fulfilling one of the promises I made to our party faithful.”
“Today is the happiest day of my life, that I am fulfilling the 2nd promise I made to my party to make sure all the properties taken from APC are returned. That is why we are here today. To take over the secretariat that was forcefully taken from us,” Tenebe stated.”
While officially announcing the takeover of the property, Tenebe said the APC will remodel the building and maintain its possession of the property.
“Today, we have taken over this secretariat. It belongs to us now, we are going to allocate offices today. We have also called the painters to repaint this place to APC color today, because this place rightfully belong to us.
“We are ready to resist anybody that will try to make any noise or try to do anything with everything that we have,” he said.
The Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Blessing Agbebaku, later led Tony Aziegbemi, the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party in the State, out of the building after he was there when the facility was taken over.
Along with other senior police officers, Ben Abang, the Deputy Commissioner for Police in charge of Operations, was in the recently recaptured APC Secretariat to meet with the APC Chairman and other high-ranking party officials and receive a firsthand briefing on the recovery of the office.
