21/06/2025
*AN URGENT APPEAL TO PRESIDENT BOLA AHMED TINUBU AND THE CURRENT GOVERNOR OF EDO STATE*
By Hon. Bright Omorogieva
*ON BEHALF OF THE UNSWORN 14 APC HOUSE OF ASSEMBLY HEROES AND LOYAL PARTY MEMBERS*
Your Excellency,
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR
President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria
Your Excellency,
Governor of Edo State
I write with a loyal heart, as a faithful member of our great party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), and as one who has stood through thick and thin with the party in Edo State.
It is with humility, pain, and an unwavering belief in justice that I appeal to Your Excellencies on behalf of the 14 APC heroes — the elected House of Assembly members who were denied inauguration simply because they refused to submit to the dictates of the then PDP-backed administration in Edo State.
These gallant legislators refused to bow to intimidation and betrayal. They stood firm for democracy, for the APC, and for the people who elected them — but they were unjustly punished, denied their seats, their voices, and their service to the people.
Many of us stood with them. We lost opportunities, political ground, and in many cases, our livelihood, but we did not lose our integrity. We held firm, because we believed in the party. We believed in your words.
*I remember vividly — I was there in person — when our leader, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, hosted Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then a presidential aspirant, at his residence. The atmosphere was electric. The video recording of that meeting is still in circulation. I personally heard President Tinubu say the following words to the people of Edo State:*
*"I want to appeal to you to reject Godwin Obaseki in this coming election. I have suffered with many others to bring about this democratic regime that today we are enjoying in the country. Godwin Obaseki didn't participate in any aspect of the struggle to enshrine democracy in the country. Therefore, he could not understand the value and the pains that were associated with that struggle. He was elected a governor by you people of great Edo State because he presented himself as a democrat and was sworn in after winning the election — no one prevented him from being sworn in. Then after, members of the State Assembly who got elected along with him — specifically twenty-four of them — he prevented fourteen of them from being sworn in. He demonstrated an act of dictatorship, lack of respect for the rule of law, and lack of respect for you — the people who voted for those legislators."*
Your Excellency, these were your words. We believed them. We held on to them like a promise. But years later, no recognition, no compensation, no inclusion has come for those who made that stand — not even from the current Edo State administration, which once publicly promised to look into the injustice.
This silence is painful. This abandonment is disheartening. The 14 legislators are not just victims — they are democratic heroes, and so are those of us who stood behind them when it was dangerous and politically costly to do so.
We are not begging for favors. We are only asking for justice, inclusion, and compensation for the loyalty, sacrifices, and political losses we endured for the APC and for democracy.
We are hopeful. We are still loyal. But we are also hurting.
Mr. President, Your Excellency the Governor — please remember your words. Please remember our stand. Please remember our sacrifice.
History is watching. And the future will ask what we did for those who stood firm when democracy was under threat.
God bless President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
God bless the Governor of Edo State.
God bless the All Progressives Congress (APC).
God bless the people of Edo State and the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
*Signed,*
*HON. BRIGHT OMOROGIEVA, NATIONAL COORDINATOR OF TEAMHB0 AND THE ORIGINATOR OF MODEN.*
Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu
Godswill Obot Akpabio
Adams Oshiomhole
Honorable Bright Omorogieva
Hon. Dennis Idahosa