NASS crisis: Odigie-Oyegun must resign as APC chairman, party governors insist

Days after Timi Frank, deputy na- tional publicity secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), called for the resignation of John Odigie- Oyegun, national chairman of the party, for the role he played in the crisis that rocked the party over the National As- sembly leadership, governors on the platform of the party toed the same path as they asked the chairman to hon- ourably tender his resignation over what they described as mismanagement crisis that recently engulfed the National Assembly.

The governors, who stormed the national secretariat when the meeting of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) was on-going, suddenly put a stop to the meeting which was in advance stage and excused the chairman to his office where their intention was made known.

An inner source, who got the gist of the meeting, informed that the mission of the gover- nors to the party secretariat was to ask the party national chairman to resign.

“The chairman is already in bad book of most of these gov- ernors, especially those ones that are loyal to one of the na- tional leaders of APC. So, they want him to resign to pacify all the interest,” the source said.

The governors, who made their intention known to the national chairman were: Ad- ams Oshiomhole (Edo), Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa), Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna), Rauf Areg- besola (Osun), Abubakar Sani Bello (Niger) Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Atiku Bagudu (Kebbi) and Abubakar Badaru (Jigawa).

The APC governors who looked visibly angry when they came out of the meeting however, refused to speak to journalists on the mission to the APC national chairman, as they were leaving the party’s secretariat.

Oyegun has been in the eyes of the storm since he endorsed the emergence of Bukola Saraki as Senate president and Yakubu Dogara as speaker, House of Representatives against the position of the party.

When contacted for com- ment, Lai Mohammed, APC national publicity secretary, said: “I am not privy to what the governors came to discuss with the national chairman in his office, but I can assure you that they did not come to ask him to resign.”

When asked why they were there, Lai Muhammad said the governors were at the party secretariat to confer with the national chairman.

Meanwhile, the embattled APC national chairman also met with Senators Ahmed La- wan and George Akume, after the meeting with the governors. Lawan and Akume were con- sensus candidates of APC for Senate president and deputy Senate president, respectively.