Chief John Odigie-Oyegun,
national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has rubbished
insinuations that he was intimidated into refusing to seek another term as
Chairman.
Oyegun said his decision not to
seek re-election was influenced by his personal consideration and not due to
intimidation.
He made this clarification while
addressing journalists in Abuja.
According to Oyegun, “I wasn’t
intimidated out. I took into consideration, and I was influenced by my own
consideration of what is in the best interest of the APC. I have relatively
been stubborn.
“I have been through several
intense opposition with some saying ‘Oyegun must go’, but I said there was no
reason why Oyegun should go and I held to the point of principle and what makes
me so happy today is that in all the virility or intensity of the attacks, it
was easy to locate it.
“And it was easy to see that by
and large, the top leadership of the party was on my side. That is something
that gives me intense satisfaction. So, I was not intimidated out of the race,
I only just thought of Oyegun being in the front or back pages of newspapers
every day and being the famous whipping boy of the social media, maybe we should
let somebody else bring some different air into the system, and that was all.
“It was in the interest of the
party that I do not become the problem or the major part of the problem.
“As for anybody else coming in,
the contest is open. The man you mentioned has indicated his interest, and it
is for the delegates to decide. There is nothing to dialogue. You offer
yourself for service because you think you have fresh ideas or a new sense of
direction or whatever. That is legitimate.
“It does not matter where you
come from. But again, if you go back to the decision of the National Executive
Committee, NEC, of the party, it said to the greatest extent possible, existing
zoning should be maintained; which means since the chairmanship is located in
Edo State, there is a very high possibility that they will also be looking for
somebody to replace him from Edo State.”
Oyegun, who was earlier seeking
to extend his tenure as national chairman of APC in the forthcoming national
convention of the party, had last week Friday announced his decision not to
continue in the race.
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