The spat between two elders of the Edo State chapter of the embattled African Democratic Congress (ADC) exacerbated on Saturday with ex-Senate Chief Whip and member of the National Executive Committee, (NEC) Senator Roland Owie, warning a former governor of Edo State Chief John Odigie-Oyegun to stop playing games and choose between being a national or senatorial leader of the ADC, insisting that he cannot assume both roles.
Presenting Odigie-Oyegun with the two options while speaking to journalists in Benin on the raging crisis rocking the Edo ADC which escalated following disagreements among leaders of the party over who becomes the next state chairman, Senator Owie explained that the chairmanship of the Edo ADC was zoned to Edo South, which subsequently micro-zoned the position to Oredo Local Government Area.
He said that following the development, two aspirants, Dr Mike Ehima and Tony Alile, indicated their interest in contesting for the office, warranting a mini primary to be conducted for them.
Senator Owie stated that at the end of the exercise, Dr Ehima polled 75 votes, while his opponent, Tony Alile, scored four votes.
He said information reaching him and the party indicated that Chief Odigie-Oyegun was adopting another chairman in place of Dr Ehima at the national office of the party in Abuja.
Contending that “Oyegun cannot be a National Leader and Senatorial Leader; he should choose one,” Owie called on the NEC of the ADC to call Oyegun to order, warning, “Oyegun should stop playing games.”
On the recently conducted local government congresses of the party in Edo, Senator Owie said the exercise was peaceful and unanimous in some local governments, “but the state is what we are hammering on now.”
However, in his reaction to Senator Owie’s allegation, Odigie-Oyegun said, “I am not the State Congress officer appointed by the national headquarters, Abuja, to oversee the congress. It is only the congress officer who can speak on that; maybe he will speak tomorrow.
On the insistence by Kennedy Odion, that he remained the state Chairman of the ADC in Edo pending the expiration of his tenure May 12, 2026, and that the Local Government Congresses were a sham, the former governor said, “I don’t know where he got that from; it is between him and Abuja. I don’t know anything about that.
“And you know he is a member of another ADC in Abuja. Maybe that is where he got that from.”
