Abuja –Â Embattled Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State on Thursday said since Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, came on board the party is losing almost five million voters because of anger and protest, saying he needs to be called to order.
He also said Bola Ahmed Tinubu, APC National Leader, is ignorant of the crisis brewing within the party.
Okorocha said this in apparent reaction to Tinubuâ€
s open support for Oshiomhole despite the grievances that has characterised the recent primary elections.
“Tinubu may be misinformed, if he is properly informed he will not say what Oshiomhole is doing is the right thing,� Okorocha said.
According to the Imo governor, who doubles as chairman, Progressives Governors†Forum, the party stands a chance of losing five million eligible persons who should have voted for APC in next yearâ€s general election.
The governorâ€s visit to the presidency where he met with President Muhammadu Buhari behind closed doors may have been inspired by recent developments within the polity, where the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has shut out Okorochaâ€s bid to foist his son-in-law as the partyâ€s candidate on Imo State.
It is being speculated that the NWC may revert back to the report of the Ahmed Gulak Committee, which conducted the initial primary that produced Senator Hope Uzodinma as the partyâ€s governorship candidate for the state.
Tinubu had on Wednesday met with President Buhari, where he maintained support for the actions of Oshiomhole and advised the aggrieved aspirants in the recent primaries to take their failure in good fate.
The aggrieved governor told State House correspondents, “Gentlemen of the press, I am here to clear the air that the presidency is not behind what Oshiomhole is doing in some of the states and which has affected our party negatively; and from my understanding from Mr. President there is no such directive for Oshiomhole to do anything illegal or create any sort of injustice.
“So, Oshiomhole is on his own in this whole thing. There is no presidencyâ€s support for him to refuse candidate, those who won elections and give wrong candidates who didnâ€t win election. This is the matter and I will simply say that he is not with the consent of the presidency, he is on his own.
“I also requested that Oshiomhole must learn to respect the rule of law and obey court orders where they apply. This issue of treating court orders as tissue papers must stop, it doesnâ€t reflect the image of our party, he must act quickly to fix the integrity of this party because his coming in ought to have brought joy into the party and not sadnessâ€�.
Asked if the APC will disintegrate from Oshiomholeâ€s actions, he said, “Well, APC will not disintegrate for as long as the person, Muhammadu Buhari, is still the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and remains the leader of this party.
“But we cannot give that credit to the chairman. He cannot disintegrate this party, the party is still intact, just that many people are hurt. Since his inception and after this primaries, we are losing almost five million voters because of anger, protest everywhere and he needs to be called to order, he has to respect the rule of law, respect court orders and do the right thing – obey court orders where applicable and not turn himself into INECâ€�.
Also asked if Oshiomhole goes ahead to present Hope Uzodinma as the bona fide candidate of the party in Imo, he said the party chairman dare not.
“He cannot be standing on Hope Uzodinma because that man did not win election, you cannot compare somebody who won 265,000 votes with somebody who won 7,000 votes.
“He (Hope Uzodinma) never won election and you cannot impose a candidate who is unacceptable to the people on the people. That is how serious the matter is now. So he (Oshiomhole) should do the right thing and I have advised him severally to do the right thing before he creates more disaffections in our party.�
Asked what would be the implication for the party if Oshiomhole went ahead to present Uzodinma to INEC, he replied again, “He canâ€t! I donâ€t think the National Working Committee will do that because in the first place, the National Working Committee sent a 13-man delegation who conducted election and 12 of them signed proving that Uche Nwosu won the election with 265,000 votes as against Hope Uzodinma who got less than 7,000 votes; so they canâ€t do that.
“And there is a letter to that effect from the National Working Committee, saying Uche Nwosu won, there is a Certificate of Return given to Uche Nwosu, there is a police report saying Uche Nwosu, there is INEC report saying Uche Nwosu. So nobody can do that and if they do that that must be the worst imposition in the history of Nigeria�.
The governor, however, wrote off insinuations that if things go astray, he will defect from the party to SDP.
“SDP? How can I build a house and leave it for someone else? I am in APC, I founded the APC, I gave the name APC and so this is our party and we must continue with the party and build the party for victory,� he stated.
The post APC Crises : Oshiomhole Costing Party 5m Voters — Gov. Okorocha appeared first on Independent Newspapers Nigeria.
APC Crises : Oshiomhole Costing Party 5m Voters — Gov. Okorocha
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