The move to remove the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has split the state chairmen of the party. The state party chairmen were divided over the call for Oshiomhole’s removal by some party chieftains, especially the governors. Some state chairmen, who spoke to New Telegraph in anonymity, said there were pressures on them to move against the National Chairman.
According to them, some state chairmen were meeting in small groups to consider the option of removing the party’s National Chairman. A state chairman said: “It is not removing Oshiomhole that is the problem, but the consequences of that removal. “If such action would cost us the next election, it would not be good for us and if his stay as chairman would also cost us the election next year, it would not be good for the party.
“The best thing that should happen is for the President, Muhammadu Buhari to intervene and intervene sincerely.” Another state chairman, who confirmed that there were pockets of meeting by some of his colleagues to remove their national chairman, said he would prefer Oshiomhole’s removal. According to him, “Oshiomhole has fractured the party seriously. There is no way that three or four governors would be against you and you would say the number was inconsequential.
“How many governors left the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) that made them to lose election in 2015?” Oshiomhole had alleged that only three governors were against him. He said the governors were: Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun) and Abdullazizi Yari (Zamfara) states. The APC National Chairman was, last week, grilled by the Department of State Services (DSS) over the outcome of the APC primaries. According to him, the governors were behind his ordeals.
Oshiomhole had claimed that the Presidency was aware of every action he had taken in the party. Also reacting to the plot to remove Oshiomhole by state chairmen, a National Working Committee (NWC) member, who spoke in anonymity, said no state chairman would support Oshiomhole’s removal. According to him, the state chairmen were happy with the recent development in the party with the ways the national chairman was handling activities of the party.
The NWC member said: “Some of the state chairmen are tired of the governors’ antics in the states and would want the structures taken away from them.” But the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, yesterday said that some chieftains of the party, including state governors were against Oshiomhole because of the changes he was introducing into the party for a better nation.
He noted that Oshiomhole, in line with the APC change mantra, was trying to instill a regime of new order where nobody is above the law. “Some of the fundamental changes started by Buhari/Osibanjo will manifest shortly. For the first time, people are now afraid to do wrong. What Oshiomhole is doing is to institute a regime of change where nobody is above the law.” Also speaking yesterday, Oshiomhole declared that that he never met with the National Leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in London over his interaction with the DSS. Speaking to newsmen shortly after an interdenominational church service to mark Obaseki’s second year in office in Benin-City, Oshiomhole said there was no reason for him to travel all the way to London to see Tinubu, adding that he could easily see him in Lagos. He explained that he also has unhindered access to the Presidential Villa to see President Muhammadu Buhari, who is the leader of the ruling party.
