… …as plot to remove him thickens
Oshiomhole should speak for himself – APC spokesman
Ahead of the 2023 general elections, a fresh plot to remove Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress may have begun, The Point learnt at the weekend.
The Point gathered from credible sources that efforts to sack Oshiomhole from office were intensified recently by forces within the party opposed to his continued leadership in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election, in particular.
Party sources fingered Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, as working in concert with some other APC state governors as arrowheads of the thickening plot to oust Oshiomhole from office.
The alleged fresh move by Obaseki and some of his colleagues to sack the APC national chairman was confirmed by a member of the House of Representatives from Edo State, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, who spoke with our correspondent at the weekend in Benin.
Also, another chieftain of the party, who pleaded anonymity, said that the plan to sack Oshiomhole was part of the burgeoning intrigues in the APC over the 2023 presidential poll. No fewer than five APC state governors, it was learnt, are prepared to have a showdown with Oshiomhole over control of events that will lead to the party’s presidential primary for the 2023 poll.
He said the current battle against Oshiomhole within the APC was to checkmate his perceived sympathy and preference for the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, as successor to President Muhammadu Buhari, whose tenure ends in 2023.
The party chieftain said Oshiomhole was being suspected of already working for the eventual emergence of Tinubu as the ruling party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election and by extension, the country’s next president.
Oshiomhole, it was gathered, is now being hounded by opposing forces within the ruling party for allegedly already making plans to surrender the APC machinery to Tinubu to enable him to realise his presidential ambition in 2023.
He, therefore, claimed that pressure being put on Oshiomhole to resign from the party’s leadership was part of the grand plot by those opposed to Tinubu to frustrate the APC national leader’s 2023 presidential ambition.
He accused some Northern chieftains of the party, working in collaboration with some of their counterparts in the South of being behind the current heat turned on Oshiomhole to quit office, saying that they feared that the APC national chairman might influence and even yield the party’s presidential ticket to Tinubu, if he’s allowed to continue at the helm of affairs up till 2023.
The APC chieftain said that Oshiomhole was not the real target of those fueling the plot to kick him out of office, but Tinubu who they were determined to stop at all costs from picking the ruling party’s presidential ticket for the 2023 election.
The Point gathered that the anti-Oshiomhole group within the APC is angered by President Buhari’s seeming disinterest and refusal to buy into their plan to remove the party’s national chairman from office, vowing to use all means within their powers to achieve their objective within the shortest possible time.
Towards this end, The Point learnt, the anti-Oshiomhole group decided to continue to widen its rank by rallying everyone who has an axe to grind with the party’s national chairman, including some aggrieved incumbent and former APC state governors.
These incumbent and former governors, it was learnt, were still smarting from Oshiohomle’s stance against them and their loyalists in the governorship primaries conducted in the run-up to the 2019 general elections and have vowed to take their own pound of flesh from the party’s national chairman.
OSHIOMHOLE’S MANY TROUBLES
Of course, these are not the best of times for the APC national chairman as he is confronted with problems from different angles: his party, where the governors have allegedly ganged up against him, the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party, which has accused him of heating up the polity with his pronouncements on the Supreme Court judgment on the Bayelsa governorship election, and on the home front, where he’s entangled in a tough political battle with his estranged godson, Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Many APC state governors, it was learnt, are also not on the same page with Oshiomhole, the national chairman of their party. The reason for this, according to sources close to the governors, is his handling of the affairs of the party, especially during the build-up to the 2019 general elections.
Some of the key players, who stakeholders said were not particularly happy with the APC national chairman include former governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun and his former Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha.
The candidates of the two governors were denied the party’s tickets through what their close aides claimed was a game plan to whittle down their influence in the two states.
Many other APC governors have since joined the two former governors in their opposition to Oshiomhole, who they see as working towards the emergence of Tinubu as the party’s presidential candidate.
Recall that Oshiomhole’s travails began shortly after the 2019 general elections when the Deputy National Chairman (North), Sen. Lawal Shuaibu, called on him to resign for allegedly failing to add any value to the APC since his election.
Shuaibu, in a letter dated May 27, 2019 and addressed to Oshiomhole, had accused the chairman of incompetence, high handedness and immaturity in his handling of the affairs of the party.
He said, “I am a critical stakeholder in the APC project and therefore, have a stake for which I reserve the right to write this letter to you.
“This is, however, in addition to my being a legitimately elected Deputy National Chairman (North) at the last National Convention, and not because I have any higher stake in APC than any other member.”
He had further stated that Oshiomhole lacked the capacity and necessary composure to lead the party.
Though Oshiomhole then escaped being sacked from office by the skin of his teeth, the current tide may be too rough for him to swim through as majority of the APC governors are said to be against retaining him as APC national chairman.
Only last week, APC Youths Stakeholders’ Forum staged a protest at the party’s secretariat in Abuja to demand Oshiomhole’s removal from office. They blamed the party’s loss of Bayelsa on him.
The spokesman of the protesters, Genesis Johnson, claimed that Oshiomhole had been running the affairs of the APC in breach of the party’s constitution, saying such impunity had caused the party major losses in Zamfara, Bayelsa and Rivers states.
The main opposition PDP also called for the arrest and prosecution of Oshiomhole, saying his statement that nobody would be sworn in as governor led to the violence that greeted Bayelsa on the eve of the swearing-in of Governor Douye Diri.
The PDP queried the delay by the Federal Government in arresting Oshiomhole for also allegedly inciting the attack on Justice Mary Odili over the Supreme Court’s judgment on the Bayelsa governorship election.
The PDP described the attack on Justice Odili by APC thugs as part of APC’s plot to intimidate, harass and cow the judiciary and judges to do only its bidding in delivering judgments on cases involving the opposition and its members.
ATTACK FROM HOME FRONT
But stakeholders in Oshiomhole’s home state of Edo are not relenting in their efforts to get him kicked out of office. Though the APC has inaugurated a committee led by Chief Bisi Akande to look into the various issues surrounding the crisis in the ruling party across the country, the tension within the party in Edo State is getting worse as both factions of the APC in the state have continued to be at loggerheads over alleged plan to remove Oshiomhole.
His ongoing spat with his successor in the office of the Edo State governor, Obaseki, has continued to aggravate, further widening the gulf between the former godfather and his political godson.
At the weekend, Obaseki’s deputy, Phillip Shaibu and Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie, allegedly mobilised thugs to the Benin Airport to stop Oshiomhole from visiting the state.
According to reports, hundreds of the governor’s supporters besieged the airport with the objective of denying the APC national chairman entry into Benin, the state capital.
Coordinator of the Obaseki /Shaibu Movement in Edo State, Mr. Lawani Damian, who is also the state’s Commissioner for Youth and Special Duties, said until Oshiomhole and his supporters in the state stopped insulting, harassing and intimidating the governor, Obaseki’s loyalists would continue to mount pressure and collaborate with the forces working to sack him from office as the APC national chairman.
Speaking in the same vein, an APC chieftain and Obaseki’s supporter, Hon Charles Idahosa, warned that any attempt by Oshiomhole to stop the governor from having a second term would lead to the death of the ruling party in Edo State.
Idahosa insisted that Governor Obaseki must be allowed to fully serve the constitutional two terms of eight years without any let or hindrance by any one.
“What’s happening now is like a storm in a tea cup. There is no cause for alarm, rest assured. I know many of us are still sitting on the fence. But don’t be bothered, don’t be shaken. Obaseki must do his eight years (tenure). If anybody, by error of omission or commission stops him, APC is dead in Edo State,” he said.
But a former secretary to the state government and Federal lawmaker currently representing Owan Federal constituency in the House of Representatives, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, accused Governor Obaseki of acting in concert with some other APC governors to bring down Oshiomhole as the party’s national chairman.
Ihonvbere, who did not mention the names of the other APC governors allegedly involved in the plot to sack Oshiomhole from office, however, said that Obaseki and his accomplices would be disappointed at the end, as they would fail.
According to the lawmaker, “However, he (Obaseki) must realise that he doesn’t have much time left. The time table is out. The primaries would soon be upon us. He can move around, he has the capacity to move round. He has been moving around trying to bring down the national chairman. He has his accomplices among some governors. If he thinks the destruction of another would precipitate his own progress, he is daydreaming. It will not happen.
“Well if you say we should advise him, if he can retrace his steps, apologise to those he has offended, all the numerous, thousand and one injunctions he has put there, withdraw them; listen to the new reconciliation committee chaired by chief Bisi Akande, maybe, just maybe, people would listen to him. But that does not mean automatic ticket for a second term. No. He must go to the field along with those who are contesting now. But if he doesn’t do all these things, he will still go to the field if he is still in APC.”
He further blamed the governor for disagreeing with Oshiomhole, saying he had spurned all efforts to make peace with the APC national chairman.
Ihonvbere added, “As far as I am concerned, Obaseki is the problem. He is the one who says he doesn’t want peace. The Oba of Benin has intervened, the President has intervened. Even Aliko Dangote, his personal friend and that of Oshiomhole has intervened. Members of the National Assembly, collectively and individually, have intervened. The Governors Forum set up a committee chaired by Kayode Fayemi, he refused to accept them in Edo. They set up another reconciliation panel, he said he doesn’t want it because the Senate President is chairing it.
“Who does he think he is? Is he the owner of Edo State? He is not. He is just one person that was elected to govern following the constitution and the rule of law. If he steps out of that, he is liable. Everybody cannot be begging you to make peace and you are behaving as if your mandate is from heaven. It is not from heaven. It was given to you by people in the field and those same people can recharge it or discharge it as they please.”
PARTY CAN’T SPEAK FOR OSHIOMHOLE- APC SPOKESMAN
When contacted by our correspondent for the party’s comment on Oshiomhole’s recent travails, the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mr. Lanre Isa-Onilu, said he would not comment on the matter that had to do with the person of the APC national chairman.
Isa-Onilu said that Oshiomhole’s chief press secretary was the only one in the best position to speak for his principal.
“If it is about the national chairman, I will not comment. I would rather ask you to contact his chief press secretary because I speak for the party and not individual,” he said.
