•‘Overtures from Buhari, Oshiomhole belated’
A leader of the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC), Alhaji Kawu Baraje, said yesterday that the group has decided to leave the APC.
Baraje and the spokesman of the group, Kassim Afegbua, said the overtures from President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, to Saraki and other leaders of the group was belated.
Afegbua said they could not trust the leadership of te party to implement whatever agreement is reached with them.
Speaking in Ilorin, Baraje, a Saraki acolyte, said:”As far as I know, there is no juicy position that can replace the kind of embarrassment, debasement and horrifying experiences many of us have suffered and gone through in the hands of some few mischievous members of the APC; it’s quite unfortunate.”
Saying a decision had been taken by the group to leave the APC, Baraje added that if Senate President Bukola Saraki felt the need to stay back in APC, it is okey for him but he would not have his supporters with him.
He said: “I don’t know what he (Saraki) will still be doing behind.
“The followers of the Senate President, particularly from Kwara State and across the country, have already resolved to leave the APC with or without Saraki. So it is now left for the Senate President to take a decision, more so that he is an experienced and a seasoned politician.”
In a statement, Afegbua said “dangling juicy carrots won’t help” at this stage.
“We members of the R-APC find it very amusing that those who boasted that they won’t lose sleep over our altruistic action have been hopping from door to door, pleading with our members not to leave by dangling juicy carrots and promising them heaven and earth.
“It is interesting to suddenly see Mr. President holding meetings with the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki, reportedly promising mouth-watering offers; the same leader who was ridiculed, scandalised, demonised, criminalised and called all sorts of names by agents of the Presidency just to give the Senate President a bad name in order to hang him.
“Never a time has the number 3 (three) citizen of Nigeria been so dehumanised, criminalised and disgraced in such whimsical manner while all the present reconciliators kept conspiratorial silence, waiting for the sledge hammer to fall on the Senate President. They tried all tricks, mounted all manner of pressures, raised all dubious allegations, just to nail the Senate President. They were short of calling him a promoter of armed robbery; they linked his name to the Offa robbery and improvised all biles to rubbish the institution of the Legislature.
“Does anyone need to be reminded that caveat emptor should be the operative words? Those who pleaded in the past, short of kneeling before their subordinates, ended up in the political belly of their benefactors when the re-election was concluded.”
The statement informed “our members nationwide that we are still maintaining our stand against the APC and no amount of carrots, intimidation and harassment can dissuade us”. (The Nation)
