Internal crisis in APC deepens as Oshiomhole bombs Okorocha, Amosun

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has described the outbursts of Governors Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State against him as the ranting of defeated men.

Oshiomhole said the vexatious comments by Okorocha and Amosun were informed by his refusal to support them in subverting the people’s will and illegally replacing the winners of governorship primaries in Imo and Ogun with their handpicked candidates.
The APC Chairman who spoke with journalists in Abuja announced that following due process and in some cases court orders, the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party has submitted the name of Hope Uzodinma as the governorship candidate of APC for Imo State and Abiodum Dapo as the governorship candidate for Ogun State to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as against the Okorocha’s anointed candidate, Uche Nwosu and that of Amosun, Adekunle Akinlade.

Both Okorocha and Amosun who got wind of this development a day before the last day (Friday) for the submission of list of governorship candidates ran to President Muhammadu Buhari but to no avail and they took a swipe at Oshiomhole, accusing him of sabotaging the party.
But Oshiomhole dismissed the claims of both governors, saying Okorocha for instance was angry with him because of his refusal to aid him to turn Imo into Okorocha dynasty where his Son – in – law will be Governorship Candidate and himself will be Senatorial candidate.

The APC National Chairman said his crime against Amosun is his refusal to collaborate with him to become an emperor in Ogun State where he pronounced Akinlade Governorship Candidate, himself Senatorial candidate and all candidates for the National and State House of Assembly.

He recalled that in Ogun State, trouble started when, “Amosun in his wisdom decided to introduce a third element which did not feature in the resolution of the NEC on primaries. He announced that Ogun state was going to adopt consensus and he proceeded to define what in his view constitute a consensus.

“And having defined it to mean the pronouncement of the governor, he went on to announce who according to him was a consensus candidate, one Akinlade as the next governor. He proceeded to announce another gentleman as the deputy governor.

“He went on to proclaim himself as the next senator and also said the current senator in his own zone, Sen. Tejuosho, would step aside so that he, Amosun, at the end of his tenure would proceed o the senate. And according to him, this is consensus”.

In Imo State, Oshiomhole said: “What I am not able to do for governor Okorocha is to assist him with the instruments of APC even as that will bother on the abuse of power on my side assuming I have the powers to help him to create Rochas Okorocha Political Dynasty in Imo state which Rochas Okorocha will be the Senatorial candidate, his son in law, Uche Nwosu will be the APC governorship candidate.

“I do not have the power to help him create the political dynasty in Imo State. I am convinced and this is where my friends governors tend not to understand me. Between the known interest of the people of Imo State who had reposed confidence in us by voting us to power as they did in 2015, I will resist every pressure particularly the pressure to assist on my part to undermine the wishes of the good people of Imo State.

“At this stage, the wishes of APC candidate in Imo who do not want a political dynasty by the way in which they have voted. We conducted the first governorship congress, governorship primaries by the Ahmed Gulak. NWC has met and they have review the report of the Gulak committee and the NWC has upheld the result of the Gulak committee.

“Because we found it was in substantial compliance with the guidelines guiding the conduct of gubernatorial primary that he was mandated to do. And we have upheld it and we have done the needful by also ensuring that we submit the name of the winner, Senator Hope Uzordinma, as the APC candidate for Imo State.

Meanwhile, APC has no governorship and State House of Assembly candidates in Zamfara State for the 2019 general election as the deadline for the submission of governorship candidates by political parties expired mid night Friday.
INEC had barred APC from submitting list for National Assembly, governorship and State House of Assembly due to failure of the party to stick to the deadline for conducting party primaries and consequently, APC has fielded no candidate.
However, Oshiomhole asserted that, “our lawyers have taken up the case. INEC cannot disenfranchise the people and then award Zamfara State to the PDP or any other party”.
He also announced that APC will comply with the recent Supreme Court judgment and conduct fresh congresses in Rivers State.

“The judgment by the Supreme Court in which from the first page to the last page, it is very clear that the Supreme Court has nullified the ward congresses that were done by my predecessor in Rivers State and also nullified the state and local government congresses that were done in the state because according to the Supreme Court, those congresses were done in spite of a subsisting court order. What is important is that as things stand, the highest court in the land has pronounced that those congresses did not meet the requirements of the law and are therefore, not valid.
“As a law abiding party, we accept the decision of the court and we will call a meeting in no distant future of all the stakeholders in Rivers State to prepare them and to put the necessary machinery in place to conduct fresh ward, local government and state congresses in Rivers in line with the provisions of the constitution of the APC. This we have to do in full obedience to the judgment of the Supreme Court”.

James Kwen, Abuja