One of the presidential candidates for the FCTA multi-purpose co-operative society Ltd, Comr. Emmanuel Tortiv has called on members of the co-operative to come together to resist those who are bent on perpetuating themselves in power through various unconventional and undemocratic methods.

Comrade Tortive made this call in a statement he made available to the media on Friday. He particularly lamented the role being played by the Director of Co-operatives in the Agric and Rural Development Secretariat, Engr. Gbemi Omole through his agent, Mr. Salako Taorid, the Deputy Director incharge of the Registry Unit of the Co-operative Department.

The statement read in part; "What is now news is that despite the discovery by the Director that he and his co travelers completely goofed by adopting highly undemocratic and unconventional tactics that scuttled a well-organized elections, he is still pushing and working towards forcing down the throats of our members the forged copy of the Bye-law as a basis to reschedule the botched elections. This is a clear conclusion that our colleagues in Agric Secretariat see the rest of us as chaff while they are the only egg heads that can lead.

Even more disturbing is the fact that, the former President of the Co-operative, Pastor Emmanuel Abenu who who invited the Director of Co-operatives as Special Guest of Honour but said he was embarrassed by his actions has maintained criminal silence while the duo continue to plot against a Society he was one of the pioneers and served as an Official in the last 22 years.

Members of the Co-operative must know that this desperate backdoor coup d’etat against us is meant to foist on us a colleague who in his innocence and inexperience will become a conduit pipe to siphon our hard savings to fund the lifestyles of the cabals. 

The legal position at hand after the botched elections is that having dissolved the old cabinet, the reins of power in the Co-operative firmly remains in the hands of the Election Committee made up of the following persons and their addresses:

Mal. Ishaq Musa Bissalah, Chairman (UBEB-Quality Assurance Dept)
Sir Jude Ezejiofor, Secretary (Agric & Rural Dev. Secretariat)
Mrs Racheal James Yusufu, (UBEB)
Mrs Esther Salamatu Fwah, (SEB)
Mrs Pauline N Iwuajiokor, Health

The former President along with his entire cabinet that constituted the above stated Elections Committee which was approved at the last Annual General Meeting on March 9, 2024 handed them the original copy of the Co-operatives Bye-Law which is yet to be amended after 22 years of usage. He even made a proposal to amend it at the last AGM but Congress overwhelmingly rejected it. 

Same original copies of the Bye-Laws were used to conduct the 2013 and 2020 General Elections. Where and how did the Director, who is not a member of the Co-operative Society source this Bye-law that he is hell bent on compelling the Elections Committee to use for the rescheduled elections? Why did he deviate from the honorary role of dissolving the cabinet to that of conducting the elections which he is not a member? Why is the former President along with the Management Team Members from Agric keeping a criminal silence over what they started?

Members of the Co-operative must rise to the occasion by demanding fresh rescheduled elections by the Elections Committee based on the original bye-laws of the Society. Members must equally resist any invitation to attend any meeting that is not summoned by the Elections Committee. Members must also watch out that none of the old dissolved cabinet members including me dont do business in an official capacity. Members must ensure that the Commodities Office in Kado remains under lock and key until a substantive election is held. The business of this co-operative Society lies squarely in the hands of members and the Elections Committee until substantive elections are conducted.

Members must note that the position I have taken is not aimed for any personal aggrandizement. For the period I served as General Secretary and former Vice President, I always led a boardroom resistance to some of these anti-democratic and anti-people tendencies, a situation that attracted me sufficient hatred and despise by some of our colleagues from Agric. I am still prepared to continue in the same path, even if I have to sacrifice my ambition, until the Regulator, the Director of Co-operatives returns back to his primary role of regulating Co-operative Societies instead of meddling and interfering with the Co-operative Societies," the statement concluded.