Governor Ibikunle Amosun
The All Progressives Congress has said the disapproval being
expressed by some of its senior party officials over the party’s
primaries was a result of their failure to have their way during
the exercise.
The party said it was public knowledge that some of its highly
placed members were not only taking their loss at the polls very
badly, but that they were looking for those to blame for their
woes.
The National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Mallam Lanre
Issa-Onilu, made the claims in an interview in Abuja on
Wednesday.
He spoke specifically about the reactions of the Ogun State
Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, and the Director-General of the Voice of
Nigeria, Osita Okechukwu.
He alleged that Amosun was embittered because his attempt to
foist a candidate on the people, using undemocratic means, failed.
The party spokesperson described the case in Ogun State as a
straightforward one.
Issa-Onilu said, “If we speak to the merit of this case, the
Ogun State governor –the whole world saw it, the visuals were
everywhere where he gathered some aspirants, stakeholders and said
clearly, there won’t be primaries and right there he pointed at
whom the next governor would be. He pointed to another person,
‘this one, you are the next senator, House of Reps etc and himself
the next senatorial candidate and he dished out these positions out
there.”
The APC spokesman said that naturally, party members in the
state reacted, stressing that even if the party stakeholders in the
state accepted it, the party headquarters would not because the
process was alien to the APC constitution.
He also said, “In the case of Ogun, after that exercise failed
after they tried to handpick who will be what, they sent a letter
that they had agreed on direct primary and the party had no choice
but to endorse what you want.
“On the day they all came for screening, including the governor,
suddenly they left other aspirants and returned to Abeokuta,
gathered some people and sent back to the National Working
Committee that they wanted indirect primary and the other aspirants
said we were all here together, that they didn’t know when this
change was made.”
Issa-Onilu equally referred to a subsisting court order which
barred the Ogun State Executive Council of the APC from party
activities but that the governor and his allies allegedly defied
the court order and went ahead to carry out an illegal exercise
which they wanted the NEC to validate.
He added, “The governor has done his best to get validation for
this self-help. That is not possible. The first thing he did was to
start saying things that made it look like something wrong has
happened when nothing of such has happened.
“Secondly, he took certain monarchs, some traditional rulers
from Ogun State to come and meet the president. I am surprised
because someone like him, with due respect to him, should have
understood the nature of the president we have, that no matter how
close you are to him, he will listen to you but he will ask for the
road to be followed.
“So, the problem he has is that, he was looking for whom to
blame and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu and Aremo Segun Osoba readily came
under attack and he blamed them for that.”
He said the question to ask was whether Tinubu and Osoba were
the ones who gave directive to Amosun to organise his own primaries
or whether they were the ones who instructed him not to participate
in the primaries or his candidate not to participate in primaries
the party organized.
Responding to aspersions cast on the party’s National Chairman,
Adams Oshiomhole, by the Director-General of the Voice of Nigeria,
Osita Okwechukwu, the APC spokesman described it as
unfortunate.
Describing Okechuckwu as a highly respected member of the APC,
he said the VON DG’s words which were spoken in anger were a
product of his frustrations with his failure to clinch the APC
ticket for Enugu-West.
Issa-Onilu said, “You can also understand that it is not about
him and the party, it is about him picking the senatorial ticket of
his constituency and that is about ambition, and when that does not
happen, you don’t expect him not to cry, he has every right to
ventilate his anger and it is for the party to also listen to
him.
“He may have gone overboard to make all sorts of ill-accusation
but you also have to understand his present situation, he lost out.
If that same process had favoured him, he would be in his office,
in an air conditioned atmosphere, drinking coffee and taking a
laugh at whoever is complaining but it didn’t work for him.”
The APC spokesman said it would be out of place to expect the
VON DG not to complain after failing to get what he was looking
for. He said it was unfortunate that he had picked on the party’s
national chairman to vent his frustrations.
The party spokesman said the party had a robust internal
conflict resolution mechanism which was available for all members
who felt aggrieved and that the least the party expected from its
rank and file was for people to use the mechanism instead of
resorting to self-help.
He alleged that the VON DG twisted facts to suit his personal
agenda because most of the things he told the media were at
variance with the realities on the ground.