A group of youths stormed the APC National Secretariat on Tuesday to protest what they claim was the overbearing influence of the National Leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, on its affairs.
The party’s youths, who came under the aegis of the APC Democratic Youth Frontiers, held several banners with anti-Tinubu posters.
Some of them read, ‘We are united in APC; Tinubu can’t separate us’; ‘Tinubu is not God’; ‘Greed is not democracy’; ‘No room for an emperor’.
Leader of the protesters, Mr. Lookman Salaudeen, said the APC national leader should be told to either toe the party line or be shown the way out.
He said, “We call on Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu to either leave the APC, (or) curtail his greed (and) toe the line and exhibit the kind of loyalty needed for party cohesion whether from ordinary members or national leaders.
“Nigeria is bigger than Lagos State, where you control affairs like a god; whose words are sacred and must be obeyed at all times.”
The group leader said he and members of the group were compelled to stage the protest when it became apparent that attacks on Buhari’s appointees and other party leaders were coming from within.
Salaudeen added, “We had initially thought this was the handiwork of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party, who wanted to continue with the unjustified attacks on the administration of Mr. President.
“We are unusually perplexed that our leader, who parades himself as the national leader of our great party, the APC, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, is the one now whistle-blowing against the same party he claimed to have brought into prominence.
“Had any other member of the party done something like this, it would have been classified as an anti-party activity; it remains the same anti-party act, an offence from whatever perspective it is considered.
“He is apparently not seeing reason as he again launched an attack on our national chairman, Chief John (Odigie-) Oyegun, whom he asked to resign, the same way his proxies have been demanding the resignation of the appointees of Mr. President.
“He did this without any thought on how the call on the national chairman to resign would affect our party in the Edo State governorship election that was taking place just hours away from when he made that error of poor judgment.”
When contacted, Tinubu’s spokesman, Mr. Tunde Rahman, promised to get back to The PUNCH.
His response was still being awaited as of the time of filing this report.
Also, a pro-APC group, ‘APC Disciples in Edo’, has warned against plots by some leaders of the party to force Odigie-Oyegun out of office by all means.
The group, in a statement by its leader, Chief Francis Inegbeniki, on Tuesday, said no amount of conspiracy would remove the national chairman.
It stated that Oyegun had not committed any offence warranting such calls for his resignation when it was so evident that he had delivered on his mandate as results of different elections held under him had testified.
It added, “it is unfortunate that Chief Bola Tinubu, our National leader, whom we all respect so much and Timi Frank to have asked Oyegun to resign from office, as both of them never disclosed any offence that Oyegun committed to warrant his resignation.
“Oyegun was not an aspirant in the Ondo APC primary; so, it is unnecessary for anyone to direct his anger to Oyegun. It is not fair to put all the blame on the head of Oyegun.”
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