The immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to wade into the crises rocking the party. The party’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Yekini Nabena, similarly argued that Buhari’s intervention was required to save the party from imminent collapse.
The duo spoke separately in Abuja.
Odigie-Oyegun, in a statement, said APC is fast becoming the single most dangerous threat to the legacy of President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.
Recalling the circumstances that led to the party’s victory in 2015, he lamented that there has been a steady erosion of democratic tenets in the party in recent times.
Odigie-Oyegun, in a vitriolic critic of the leadership style of his successor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, said the immediate constitution of a caretaker committee remains the panacea to crises rocking the party.
He said: “As a major stakeholder and a founding member of APC, I have made various efforts to add my voice to those of several other well-meaning party leaders, in ensuring that the ideals we fought for are not completely thrown overboard.
“However, I have come to realise that those who feel more entitled to the party are no longer capable of hearing alternative viewpoints, other than those counselled by their ego and self-serving interests, which they have promoted over all other considerations, including that of common decency. Yet, no political party will survive for long, which is unwilling to accommodate competing ideas and provide the space for healthy debates.
“This statement is, therefore, a clarion call to party leaders, particularly the Governors and Mr. President to urgently bring a stop to the disgraceful and humiliating charade occurring within our great party’s National Secretariat.
“There is a most urgent need for the party NEC to meet and institute for the party a Caretaker Committee (even if we have to invoke the doctrine of necessity), whose main responsibility will be to arrange for a special National Convention…”
Nabena, who spoke to reporters in Abuja, alleged that Mr. Victor Giadom, who is at the centre of the leadership crises rocking the party, must have been sponsored by fifth columnists bent on undermining the party.
The Bayelsa-born party chieftain stressed the need for the convocation of party NEC meeting to deliberate on consolidating APC’s control of Edo and Ondo states, ahead of the forthcoming governorship elections.
“The APC is clearly at a tipping point,” he said. “At least, four people are laying claim to APC chairmanship, following the court-ordered suspension of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole. All manner of court cases and orders are flying around, contesting party decisions and National Working Committee positions. Factions are festering at the national level and many states…”
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