South-South APC Leaders Split Over Oshiomhole

Stakeholders and leaders of the All Progressives Congress, APC from the South-South on Monday strongly dissociated themselves from the backing given the embattled National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole by the party’s national vice chairman, South-South, Hilliard Eta.

Briefing newsmen in Abuja on Monday two of the leaders of the APC South South Stakeholders Forum, Chief Ray Murphy and Dr Bruce Ugbode said that the endorsement given Oshiomhole by Eta’s press statement on Sunday was without consultation with leaders of the zone.

“Since our brother took over from our elder brother, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, it has been topsy-turvy. One crisis after the other generated by the simple inability to run a party with diplomacy, with tact. The highest levels of leadership requires some ability to adumbrate what you say, ability to respect people’s views and opinions.

“It is not a pugilistic activity to be national chairman of a political party and we are extremely unsatisfied, dissatisfied with the way he has carried on in the last two years since he became our national chairman and we lend ourselves seriously with the activities of those who suspended him right from his ward because he has not been carrying on with the way we sent him.

“We read in the papers today (Monday) about some people saying that the entire South South is with him. No, that is not correct. That is the kind of dictatorial policy they have been operating. That is not correct. We are not happy with him. We certainly are not satisfied with what is going on. In the last elections that we took part in, there were low hanging fruits. Akwa Ibom was there. Delta and Cross River States were there and many other places. We lost so many states just like Zamfara and others because of the inability of the people who run the party to carry along other people. Primaries were shoddy. Credible people who are capable of winning elections were shut out due to shoddy primaries.

“We support those who want to renew the party. We want a situation where this party gets a new breathe of life. This is not a matter of 2023 as my brother Hilliard Eta has said. It is about the survival of the party. Can you imagine a party where somebody sat down and suspended top officials? That is why we have this vacuum.

“We are saying there is a suspension. We are also saying that there is a court order. We are saying that the reasons for this situation is known to all of us. We are saying that it is in the interest of our party to put Oshiomhole’s era behind it and move forward with new leadership. That is what we are saying.

“This concept of a party being owed by certain persons is completely wrong, we are stakeholders who built the party, we run the party from the structure, we fund it. As bonafide Stakeholders of South-south origin in APC, for instance, Victor Giadom is from the South-south, he has just called a meeting and some people are opposing that meeting. We are saying by the natural succession, because of a vacuum that exists in the party, Victor is the right person to call a meeting at this point in time.

“We support the call to NEC by the Acting Secretary, Chief Victor Giadom because that is the only way we can give opportunity to the party to regain itself. We ask our people all over the country to lend their support for that meeting. When we have that meeting, we can now have the opportunity to renew this party and we call on all leaders and members of the party to support this NEC meeting.

“Because of the vacancies that exist in the party, Giadom is the right person to convene a meeting. Practically everybody from the South South are calling for the renewal of the party.

“We are supporting the recall of those people who were illegally suspended under Oshiomhole. This is not our character. We don’t insult people. Our character is not abrasive or aggressive. What is happening now is abhorrent.”

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