Woman leader position: Group asks APC to disqualify Betta Edu for supporting #EndSARS

A group identified as the Buharists Hang Out (BHO) has asked the screening panel of the All Progressives Congress (APC) caretaker and extraordinary convention planning committee to disqualify Betta Edu, Cross River commissioner for health, from contesting as national woman leader of the party.

In a petition signed by Uche Diala, BHO national coordinator, the group said though Edu is eligible to vie for any position in the party, her character had been called to question over a series of tweets she posted in 2020 supporting  the #EndSARS campaign.

The petition, dated March 21, 2022, was addressed to Aminu Masari, chairman of the screening sub-committee.

The development comes days after Edu was named by some APC members as the “consensus candidate” for the position of national woman leader.

The group said the tweets Edu posted during the #EndSARS protest contained fake and misleading information that contributed to the violence that occurred during the protests.

“We hereby bring to the attention of your honourable committee an aspirant to the exalted and all important office of National Woman Leader of our dear party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr Betta Edu, and to demonstrate the impropriety of her occupying such an office,” the petition reads.

“Let us first state that we have no question regarding her eligibility to vie for any position in the party having decamped to the APC from the PDP alongside her Governor and employer, HE Governor Ben Ayade of Cross River state, a couple of months ago.

“However, the propriety of Dr Eta becoming the National Woman Leader of the APC has been called to serious question since a series of tweets she made on her personal Twitter handle during the #EndSARS protests in 2020 were made public.

“These tweets were made at the height of the #EndSARS protests which threatened to drive the nation to the brink due to the combination of a number of reasons, including hijack of the otherwise well supported protest against police brutality against Nigerians by hoodlums, fifth columnists and irresponsible opposition party members and fake news.

“The tweets by Dr Edu contained a number of fake, misleading and fabricated information, many of which spurred the ensuing violence during those protests and even brought international disrepute to the nation.”

The group went on further to say Edu neither recanted her views even after they had been debunked nor deleted the tweets until after she announced her intention to contest and was called out.

“The question is whether Dr Edu, after holding and publicly expressing such views and lies a little under two years ago against the All Progressives Congress, the President and leader of the party and against the good Nigerians and Lagosians (including the very APC women she wants to lead) who believed in and voted for the party, does she have the moral right to hold such an office? Can she be trusted to hold that office? Should she be trusted to hold that office? Should she be cleared to hold that office by your committee and the party?” the group asked.

“Your Excellency, in our humble and objective view, we submit and we believe we speak for many APC members that it would be a great disservice and disrespect to loyal and faithful members of the APC, especially the women for a person in the mould and character of Dr Betta Edu to become the National Woman Leader of the APC.

“We therefore, humbly and respectfully urge the screening committee and the party at large to disqualify Dr Betta Edu from contesting for the respected position of National Woman Leader of our great party the, All Progressives Congress (APC).”