… as Buhari, APC govs postpone NEC meeting indefinitely
As President Muhammadu Buhari and governors of the All Progressives
Congress postponed Tuesday’s National Executive Committee meeting
indefinitely, the South South caucus of the party may have pencilled in a former
governor of Edo State, Prof Oserheime Osunbor, as a replacement for the
embattled National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Inside sources at the South-South APC stakeholders’ meeting convened by
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and Minister of Transport, Hon. Rotimi
Amaechi, in Abuja, and which held between last Thursday night and Friday
morning, told The Point that although the Acting National Secretary, Victor
Giadom was backed to be the acting national chairman in the interim, after a
heated debate during the meeting on who should succeed Oshiomhole in the
event of his removal from office if the NEC earlier scheduled for tomorrow had
held, the leaders of the zone unanimously agreed that Osunbor was the best
candidate to take over the party machinery at the national level.
Party stakeholders under the auspices of APC South-South Stakeholders’ Forum,
had early last week said that the region fully backed the plot for Oshiomhole’s
removal as the party’s national chairman.
They insisted that the region’s leaders had resolved that Oshiomhole should be
sacked from office.
But President Buhari and governors of the APC, on Monday afternoon, postponed
indefinitely the NEC meeting earlier scheduled for Tuesday.
They took the decision at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, after a brief meeting.
Chairman, Progressives Governors Forum, Alhaji Abubakar Atiku-Bagudu, told
reporters after the meeting with Buhari that the governors urged the President
to support the postponement until they were able to resolve the issues in the
party.
The governors in attendance included those of Ogun, Osun, Ondo, Kwara, Kano,
Nasarawa, Edo, Kebbi, Jigawa, Gombe, Borno, Niger, Plateau, Lagos, Katsina, and
Imo States.
But their colleagues in Kaduna, Ekiti, Yobe, and Kogi States did not attend.
Ray Murphy, a former senatorial aspirant and Media Adviser to a former APC
national chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, had said that the region was fully in
support of the emergency NEC meeting earlier scheduled for Tuesday to appoint
an Acting National Chairman to replace Oshiomhole.
Murphy said, “I am saying that there is a suspension, there is a court order and
the reasons for this situation is known to all of us.
“It is in the interest of our party to put Oshiomhole’s era behind us and move
forward with new leadership; that is what we are saying.
“This conception of a party being owned by certain persons is completely wrong.
We are stakeholders who built the party. We run the party from the structure,
we fund it.”
Also, last Thursday, a big billboard, posters and banners carrying Oshiomhole’s
pictures were removed from the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, indicating
an imminent end to his tenure. Earlier on Wednesday night, a large banner at the
main gate of the secretariat was replaced with that of President Muhammadu
Buhari.
A large billboard within the premises of the party secretariat bearing
Oshiomhole’s picture with President Buhari has also been replaced with
another one carrying only the President’s picture.
It was also learnt that Obaseki and Amaechi had at an earlier meeting agreed on
the choice of Osunbor as the next substantive national chairman of the ruling
APC.
Although Oshiomhole, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege and
the APC National Vice-Chairman, South-South, Hilliard Eta, stayed away from the
meeting, four serving Ministers from the zone, including Amaechi (Transport),
Osagie Ehanire (Health), Festus Keyamo (State, Labour) and Goddy Jeddy Agba
(State, Power) attended.
Also at the meeting were a former Senate Leader, Victor Ndoma-Egba; former
Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Usani Nguru Usani; and ex-NIMASA boss, Dakuku
Peterside, and others.
The South-South APC leaders in a communique issued at the end of the meeting
stated that they only recognised the party’s NEC as the only organ that could
resolve the current internal crisis.
“Aside from backing Giadom as the acting national chairman of our party, it was
also agreed that Prof. Osunbor should be our unanimous choice for the position
of the national chairman of the APC. We took this position ahead of a likely mini-
convention that may be convened to elect a new national chairman and in order
not to be caught unprepared, the meeting agreed to present Osunbor to retain
the position in our zone,” a source at the meeting, who pleaded not to be
identified, told The Point.
Towards this end, the Edo State governor and the transport minister were said
to have at the weekend reached out to anti-Oshiomhole forces in other zones,
particularly the North West and South West as well as to state chairmen of the
party to sell Osunbor’s candidature ahead of any mini-convention to elect a
substantive successor to the embattled APC national chairman.
Obaseki and Amaechi, it was learnt, are harping on Osunbor’s qualities as an
academic, a lawyer and an astute politician with the “necessary clout and
temperament” to occupy the office of the APC national chairman. Osunbor served
as from May 29, 1999 to May 29, 2007, before contesting and winning election as
the governor of Edo State, an office he occupied till November 11, 2008.
Recall that Osunbor’s election as Edo governor was nullified on November 11,
2008 by a court, following a suit instituted by Oshiomhole, who was then the
candidate of the then Action Congress. The court also declared Oshiomhole the
winner of the Edo governorship poll, sacking Osunbor from office.
But when contacted on the phone by our correspondent, Osunbor declined to
speak on the matter.
“This is the first time I’ve heard this,” he tersely said before cutting the call.
OSHIOMHOLE’S SUPPORTERS KICK
Supporters of the embattled APC national chairman are predicting doom for the
ruling party should Oshiomhole be kicked out at tomorrow’s NEC meeting.
They are certain that the party is heading towards self-destruction.
A former deputy governor of Edo State, Rev Peter Obadan, said it was only God
that could save the APC under the current situation it has found itself.
Obadan, who went spiritual, said, "Heaven has settled the case of Oshiomhole
versus all tongues that have risen against him in judgement. Oshiomhole like
David, is not perfect, but God declared that David was a man after God's heart.
Let him without blemish thunder out and like those who dragged to Christ the
woman caught in adultery, I will stoop down and list seven sins against them, for
those who address the press against Oshiomhole have rotten skeletons in their
inner chambers.
“I have held my peace to avoid a calamitous destruction of some of these loud-
mouth senior citizens because I know after God settled this crisis in the spiritual
realm in manifestation, a mighty wind shall blow and a heavy rain will fall and
out of destruction there shall be calm but all shall not be the same again. Victory
is assured and let not your hearts be troubled for GOD THE ALMIGHTY IS IN
CHARGE."
Also, a former Secretary to the Edo State Government and APC gubernatorial
aspirant, Pastor Osagie Ize-iyamu, described as unfortunate attempts by some
people to pull Oshiomhole down.
He said, "Oshiomhole is a leader, who is indisputably the National chairman of
APC, who has been elected twice as governor of Edo State and today occupies a
pride of place in the history of the state.
"You would have thought the progress of our people is our progress. You would
have thought Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, being the National chairman of APC,
will be a thing of pride and bring joy to those in authority in Edo. But because by
nature some people are wicked, they don't want us to appreciate something that
is good."
