Governor Rochas Okorocha of Imo State yesterday met with President Muhammadu Buhari and declared afterwards that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) will lose five million voters as a result of the crises besetting the party.
A fuming Okorocha told State House corespondents that the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole does not have the President’s support to mishandle issues in the party.
He said the party boss has no right to substitute Uche Nwosu with Hope Uzodinma as the gubernatorial candidate of the party in Imo State.
The governor also said the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was ill-informed over the crisis following his reported support for Oshiomhole.
He said: “Gentlemen of the press, I am here to clear the air that the Presidency is behind what Oshiomhole in what he’s 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 Presidency’s support for him to refuse candidates, those who won elections and give wrong candidates who didn’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 doesn’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 sadness.”
Asked if the ruling party now faces disintegration, the Chairman of Progressives Governors Forum, replied: “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.
“So, 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 turned himself into INEC.”
On the reported support of National Leader of APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for the party boss, Okorocha stated that he was not properly informed.
He added: “No, may be he is being misinformed, if he is properly informed he will not say what Oshiomhole is doing is the right thing.”
On whether Oshiomhole’s insistence on Uzodinma as the APC gubernatorial candidate in Imo State, the governor maintained that it would not be acceptable.
He explained, he can not 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 imposed a candidate who is unacceptable to the people to the people. “That is how serious the matter is now.
“So, he (Oshiomhole) should do the right thing and I have advised himself severally to do the right thing before he creates more disaffections in our party.”
The governor insisted that the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) cannot submit Uzodinma’s name to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the party’s candidate in Imo.
Okorocha added: “He can’t! I don’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 can’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.
On the rumor that he may defect to the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Okorocha declared: “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.”
Meanwhile, amidst the crisis trailing the primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in some states, the Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has told the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, he is not being asked to sell his conscience but to abide by the rules of the party.
He was reacting to a statement by Mr Oshiomhole after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday in Abuja that he will not mortgage his conscience to keep his job.
The APC chairman made the statement while dismissing rumours some governors were moblising to unseat him over the outcome of the party’s primaries.
Speaking for Mr Amosun in a statement he issued yesterday evening, Dayo Adeneye, the Commissioner for Information and Strategy in Ogun State, insisted Mr Oshiomhole “fell short of all standards of justice and fairness.”
“We state without any fear of equivocation that no one, at least not on the side of Senator Amosun, has requested or expected Oshiomhole to sell his conscience.
“The least we expect of him is to abide by the rules and guidelines of the APC. Oshiomhole knows, as we know, that in the instance of the last primaries in Ogun State, he has fallen short of the minimum standards of justice, equity and fairness.”
Mr Amosun’s stance differs from that of a national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, who on Wednesday also said the chairman has not broken any law or guilty of anti-party activities.
The Ogun governor is dissatisfied with the primaries of the party in his state which produced Dapo Abiodun, in place of his anointed candidate, Adekunle Akinlade.
Before the primaries, the party in the state was divided over what mode of primaries to be adopted as Mr Akinlade was initially announced as the consensus governorship candidate by the governor-led faction of the party.
After the national leadership called for primaries in the state, Mr Amosun’s faction moved for an indirect mode which five other governorship aspirants rejected. The National Working Committee (NWC) eventually directed the conduct of direct primaries in the state.
Mr Amosun’s anointed candidate, Mr Akinlade, was declared winner of the governorship primary election but the results were not signed by the chairman of the electoral committee and none of the agents of the five other gubernatorial aspirants.
Following this, another election was conducted by the NWC which now produced Mr Abiodun. But the governor has insisted that other exercise did not hold.
“Oshiomhole knows that there were no other gubernatorial primaries in Ogun State other than the one that produced Adekunle Akinlade as candidate. He knows that the primaries into national and legislative offices were won hundred per cent by those declared winner by the panel he sent to Ogun State to oversee the exercise,” Mr Adeneye stated in his statement on Thursday.
“He knows that the shenanigan of unknown court injunctions, unknown appeal panels and all sorts unleashed on the process by him and his cohorts are premeditated schemes executed to deny the members of the APC their true choice of candidates in the elections.”
He said the governor’s “consolation lies in the fact that in the fullness of time, what remains unknown to the public will become bare and everyone will see
Oshiomhole and his co-travellers for who they are.”
Mr Adeneye, however, assured of the governor’s “full commitment to the reelection of President Buhari, stressing, “the issue with the primaries won’t change that.
“In his conduct, Oshiomhole has exhibited disdain for the interest of the APC and that of the National Leader of the party, President Muhammadu Buhari. Senator Amosun remains committed to his convictions about President Buhari and nothing in the shenanigan of the primaries will change that.”
Addressing the chairman’s claim that only three out of the 23 APC governors are not pleased with the outcome of the primaries in their states, Mr Adeneye said justice is not dependent on number of whom it was denied.
“Finally, Oshiomhole’s claim that only three state governors are aggrieved about the conduct of the primaries flies in the face of the nation-wide outcry that remains loud, trailing the exercise several weeks after.
“We remind him that in any case, justice is not dependent on the number of whom it has been denied. Injustice to one is injustice to all.”
He said the overwhelming majority of members of the APC in Ogun State remain unshaken in their rejection of the “gangsterism” that has been visited on them in the conduct of the primaries.
“Resolved that the attempt to hand over their state and their patrimony to a rapacious gang of expansionists in the South West will be resisted, not only by members of the APC but by the entire people of Ogun State who are too enlightened to tolerate such abomination.”
Similarly, ahead of Friday’s deadline for submission of Forms CF001 and CF002 of the list of the governorship and state assemblies candidates by political parties to the Independent National Electoral Commission, (INEC), the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has said Tonye Cole remains its governorship candidate in Rivers State for next year election.
A statement issued last night by the party and signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, claimed the recent judgement of the apex court on the crisis in its Rivers State chapter has no bearing on the primary where Tonye Cole emerged as governorship candidate and the process that produced its candidates for the state assembly.
Our checks revealed that the Supreme Court penultimate Monday set aside the ruling of the Court of Appeal, Port Harcourt Division, which vacated a stay order made by a Rivers High Court against the conduct of All Progressives Congress congresses in the state.
Delivering the ruling on the interlocutory appeal, Justice Centus Nweze held that the decision of the Court of Appeal was in error. Nweze said the lower court was compelled to be guided by the judgments of the apex court, adding that the panel had to follow the law before arriving on its decision.
Recall that Justice Chinwendu Nworgu of the State High Court, on October 11 delivering judgment on a substantive suit, instituted by Ibrahim Umar and 12 other members of the Rivers State APC, challenging their exclusion from the party Congresses, the court voided the list of candidates and sacked the state APC executive.
But the APC last night claimed the judgment of the apex court would not restrain it from submitting Tonye Cole along with his running mate, Hon. Victor Giadom as its candidates in Rivers.
The statement read in part: “ In view of conflicting interpretations that have greeted the recent verdict of the Supreme Court on the contentions among our members in Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), it has become necessary to clarify that the Supreme Court’s verdict has nothing to do with the primaries conducted for the governorship and legislative positions in the state.
“Therefore, the candidature of Arch. Tonye Cole along with his running mate, Hon. Victor Giadom remains inviolate. The list of our candidates for the governorship, National Assembly, and House of Assembly have been processed by the National Working Committee (NWC) according to the INEC guidelines.
“Our party appreciates the support of the good people of Rivers State and their commitment towards the victory of our governorship candidate, Arch. Tonye Cole and other APC candidates at all levels in the 2019 elections. A progressive leadership under the APC beckons and the people of Rivers State are poised to effect a change to move the beleaguered state to a path of progress and development”.
The INEC, however, told Nigerian Tribune that it was not aware of the judgment of the apex court on its Rivers State chapter.
Rotimi Oyekanmi, media aide to INEC Chairman, Professor Mahmoud Yakubu told Tribune Online on phone last night that the Commission was ignorant of the court judgment
He said: “We haven’t been served. It is when we have a copy of the judgment that we can take a position.”