National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has fingered some current serving governors and an unnamed Minister as those behind his ordeal in the party.
He also linked the current move for his exit from the party to the pursuits of some inordinate ambition, including opportunities to become the President of Nigeria in 2023.
Oshiomhole, speaking after a closed door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in Aso Rock on Thursday , however described himself as “a child of light who will always defeat darkness”
“Let me also say that those behind this plot, the hands you saw which includes as you saw yesterday, the Edo State governor and his people jubilating but that is the irony of life that you will help give birth to a child and the child look for cutlass to want to chop off your neck.
He said they see him as threat to their ambitions, adding that “ those leading this anti-Oshiomhole campaign, some of them I emphasize, cannot even boost of a counselor in their state even as they lay claim to leadership position in our party.
“They are the one who are plotting how to get rid of me because they want to be president in 2023, even when their hold on their state at the moment is doubtful If they were to go for referendum in terms of their approval rating.
Oshiomhole met with Buhari behind closed doors shortly after Justice Lewis Allagoa of the Federal High Court in Kano, set aside a ruling of the FCT High Court suspending him as the ruling party national chairman.
“You will recall that I was here two days ago to brief Mr. President as I always on matters affecting the party. Just yesterday (Wednesday) morning suddenly I saw in the news that an FCT High Court has suspended me as national chairman.
“And that the person who went to court includes one of my vice chairmen, north East, one Mustapha (Mustapha Salihu APC National Vice Chairman Northeast) and four others.
“I was taken back because in the same suit they joined the APC, the police as the DSS.
Oshiomhole who faulted the fct court order approving his suspension , listed three grounds which render such act a nullif
“Our lawyers told me that in law, when you sue a federal agency, FCT High Court has no jurisdiction to entertain it. Number two, the purported suspension of my person by my ward, is not even true
“ I am an officer of his ward, I am the national chairman of my party, elected at a national convention by over 7,000 delegates, so how could nine persons sit down and purport that they have removed as national chairman.”
He noted that the court had acted contrary to all logic and judicial precedence
“In other words, he has given the order without the facts being laid before him and in the process adjourned the case to 7th of April.
“The calculations are clear that between now and April 7th, my opponent in the system would have had ample time to do all the mischievous plans they have in place to distabilise the APC, some of them have membership of more than one political party.
“But happily this afternoon, a federal high court that I believe that has jurisdictions on federal issues because the DSS, the police are not state institutions but federal institutions, has given an appropriate order to restrain the so called suspension that was allegedly impose on me by my ward in Edo State.
He stated that he was at the Villa to brief Mr. President as the overall leader of party about the development
“ I wasn’t sure what has happened today will happen. But I had a duty to inform him about the court order. But happily before coming here, the order from a Federal High Court that has made nonsense of what the FCT court purported to have done, has already settled the question.”
Oshiomhole said he presented President with the resolutions of his ward adding that “this is even though a ward executive does not have the powers to remove a national chairman, just to say that the document that we have says clearly that my ward passed vote of confidence on me.”
“How the court can hold vote of confidence and twist it to mean vote of no confidence, only that judge can explain it to himself. But the good news is that this is not a final court nor is it the only court”
He described himself as an achiever who worked hard to deliver his unit, ward and local government.
“ I worked hard in my federal constituency three of them in my senatorial zone, I also worked hard my senatorial district.
“Those fighting me couldn’t deliver even a councelor of a local government in their unit. And they just feel that if they cannot give me orders then they must do everything to embarrass my person, but I believe that he who God stands with no man born of a woman can bring him down.
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
