A member of the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Jesutega Onokpasa, has again lamented the sharp division, pull-him-down syndrome and bad blood within the ruling APC, warning that it was high time the alleged gang-up against those who played key roles in the emergence of President Tinubu stopped.
Onokpasa, a staunch supporter of President Tinubu, claimed that certain individuals in the party and within Tinubu’s government were not relenting in their plot against former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello and his Kaduna State counterpart, Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
He warned Tinubu’s appointees, who he said were using the instrumentality of power to torment Bello and El-Rufai to desist, saying the contributions and support of the former governors in the victory of the party were unquantifiable.
Lamenting in a video clip, the current ordeals of the National Chairman of APC, Dr Abdullahi Ganduje and his family members, Onokpasa said Ganduje was a victim of political vendetta, adding that it was bad that members of the same political party could be tearing themselves up to the advantage of the opposition.
He took a swipe at the leadership of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on its approach against Bello and for allegedly playing double standards on the former governor’s case, describing the anti-graft body of being the most corrupt institution in the country.
Onokpasa, a lawyer and chieftain of the APC, while addressing members and supporters of APC in the video clip said, “Seriously, what do we think we are doing to ourselves in this party? I think we all have to sit back and start reasoning deeply, because right now, we are actually misbehaving. We are tearing ourselves apart while those in opposition are regrouping against us.
“So, we should all gang up against Yahaya Bello? We should all gang up against Nasir el-Rufai? The other day, Sam was writing an article ‘Like Father, Like Fraud’. I mean, you will attack the father and attack the son? Isn’t that the rubbish that Atiku Abubakar was doing the other day? Attacking our president’s children. He will attack the father and attack the children?”
“What is Sam’s contribution to Asiwaju becoming president? Nothing! What is Nasir Rufai’s contribution? Unquantifiable. I was there. What is Yahaya Bello’s contribution? Unquantifiable. I was there. Some people just feel because they have differences with people, they will use the instrumentality of power to attack party members?
“We are falling apart like this. We won with less than 40 per cent of the votes. We won by the grace of God because it is the will of God for Asiwaju Tinubu to become our president and that is how we won. Then, as we are, the next thing we will start doing is ganging up against one another in our party? That he (Bello) will pass through the backdoor? To do what? They (EFCC) just want to collect money from Yahaya Bello. It is not fighting any corruption. You think it is everybody you can shake down? Come and shake me down,” he dared the commission.
He insisted that Bello and El-Rufai did not deserve the persecution they were currently experiencing, warning that the APC might fall apart if persecution and pulling down of members are not checked.
“Yahaya Bello and Nasir el-Rufai are our brothers, they stood with us when it mattered most. They stood with Asiwaju and I love them for doing that and I am not abandoning them. That is not how we live life. People who specialise in that nonsense, that is their headache. That is not how we are brought up, we just stab ourselves in the back. We are falling apart like this. I don’t see how this helps us at all.
“All this ‘dem say dem say’; we cannot run a government based on ‘dem say’. Many people in this administration are carried away with transient power. It will come to an end. Were there no other people before us? People will still come and replace us. Stop scattering our party, stop tormenting our members, our brothers because you want to collect money from them. I urge you all my fellow progressives, my fellow genuine Batists, for us to keep supporting our president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
“These people are not interested in helping our president reduce inflation, to stabilise prices and make him popular. No! But all these useless people are looking for is how to collect money, how to bad-mouth people. Then they start giving opportunities that ought to come to our genuine supporters to PDP and even Obidients,” he said.(Daily Trust)
