Injustice and impunity
perpetrated by the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC),
Adam Oshiomhole, cost the party Oyo State and led to other instances of
misfortune elsewhere during the last elections, former communications minister,
Adebayo Shittu, has said.
Speaking in Abuja on Monday, Mr
Shittu joined the call for Mr Oshiomole’s exit as the APC chairman.
He said Mr Oshiomhole’s exit is
necessary to avoid the APC “going down in 2023.”
“God has a way of ensuring that
people are punished for their mischief, for their injustices and all that,”
said Mr Shittu, speaking against the background of his lost battle to secure
the APC ticket to vie for the governorship election in Oyo State.
He was disqualified from the
shadow election by the National Working Committee of the party, led by Mr
Oshiomhole, after it was reported that Mr Shittu’s failure to participate in
the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).
‘Divine punishment’
“God did indeed punish the
leaders in Oyo State and even showed our national chairman that you don’t cause
injustice against people,” he said.
He said he was disqualified for
missing NYSC despite his case in court for affirmation of the legality of his
action ”and the fact that rival, Oyo State Governor Abiola Ajimobi also did not
serve (NYSC).”
Mr Shittu said it was not the
first he would suffer injustice.
He said he was denied the ticket
of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) to re-contest for a seat in the Oyo State
House of Assembly because he criticised his party (UPN) whose leaders, he said,
were also found with the same things he had criticised the National Party of
Nigeria, (NPN), for.
UPN lost the 1983 election in
Oyo, he recalled, linking that with the alleged ‘injustice’ against him.
“In the same vein in 2019, I
wanted to be governor. Of course, I had attempted it before and I knew I was
most qualified for a number of reasons but was unjustly disqualified.”
Red card for Oshiomhole
Asked to state his position on
the calls for Mr Oshiomhole to leave, he said, “this is somebody who met the
party having 26 states. By the time he (was through) with shenanigans and
destruction, the party is left with barely 20 states or so now. My fear is that
if he is not removed before 2023, my fear is that there is a possibility of APC
going down.
“President Buhari is the magnet
keeping the party together now. Once President Buhari is no longer on the
ballot, I can’t stay with Oshiomhole. So, it’s a matter of urgency that we
retire him. So, we bring fair-minded (persons), who would engage less of their
mouth than their brain.”
Spiralling Anger
Mr Shittu joins a growing list of
party officials who want the former labour leader ‘booted’ from leading the
ruling party.
Some of his traducers hinge their
grouse on the fact that APC’s political fortune had dwindled across the country
since the last general elections, even though the party’s flag bearer,
incumbent President Buhari won re-election.
The ex-governors of Ogun State,
Ibikunle Amosun and that of Imo, Rochas Okorocha, for instance, had never
hidden their dislike for Mr Oshiomhole while in office.
The constant bickering between
the ex-Edo governor and the two governors reached a peak when the party
structures in both states were ruptured ahead of the last general elections.
The party eventually lost Imo to the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party
(PDP).
Another person who also recently
called for Mr Oshiomhole’s exit is the deputy national chairman of the party,
Lawal Shuaibu. Mr Shuaibu blamed Mr Oshiomhole for the APC’s loss of Zamfara
State.
A few days after Mr Shuaibu’s
call, a former national chairman of the party, John Odigie-Oyegun, criticised
Mr Oshiomhole, accusing him of being incapable of running the APC.
Mr Oshiomhole succeeded Mr
Odigie-Oyegun as the APC chairman.
Mr Shuaibu’s call had prompted a
reaction from the state chairmen of APC in the South-south (Oshiomhole’s
region), who blamed the party’s troubles on Mr Odigie-Oyegun.
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