by
Wale Akinola June 23, 2019
- APC's governors are allegedly shopping for Oshiomhole's
replacement
- Senator Shuaibu,
who is the deputy national chairman (north), has been calling for Oshiomhole's
sack
- Shuaibu accused Oshiomhole of leading the party to destruction
The crisis rocking the All
Progressives Congress (APC) on Saturday, June 22, took another twist as the
state governors are allegedly shopping for the replacement of the party's
national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
Nigerian Tribune reports that
there is a fresh move to kick him out of the party’s national secretariat
coming on the eve of his one year in office as party’s chairman.
News Online gathered that a
party source told the newspaper that APC governors tabled a demand for a change
in the party’s leadership while meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari during
the week.
It was learnt that Kebbi state governor and
chairman of the progressives governors’ forum, Abubakar Atiku
Bagudu, led his colleagues to the meeting. It was gathered that the APC
governors, at the meeting with President Buhari, expressed concern over the
ongoing power tussle at the party’s national secretariat and pleaded for his
intervention.
The source was said to have
revealed that a meeting of its statutory organs, the national caucus and
National Executive Committee (NEC) might be convened to discuss the cold war
between Oshiomhole and his deputy.
Prodded for the name of likely
replacement if the governors succeeded in their putsch against the former Edo
state governor, the source disclosed that “the governors are shopping for a
replacement behind the president. They are restricting their choice to the
south-south zone. They aren’t looking in the direction of the southwest and
they don’t trust the southeast with the number one position in the party.”
According to the newspaper,
the national publicity secretary of the party, Mallam Lanre Isa-Onilu, could
not be reached for comments on Saturday night, June 22 but said that his
deputy, Yekeen Nabena, noted that he was not aware of any plan for a NEC
meeting.
He said: “I am not aware of
any plan to hold meeting of NEC. Only the chairman or secretary can call for
the meeting. “We don’t even have a substantive national secretary now. The
person we have is acting. So, the power to call the NEC meeting resides with
our chairman. The governors can’t force him to call NEC meeting,” he said.
Oshiomhole has been having a
running battle with one of his deputies, Senator Lawan Shuaibu, who blamed the
party’s poor performance in the general election on Oshiomhole.
Senator Shuaibu, who is the
deputy national chairman (north) had, in a recent letter, accused Oshiomhole of
excluding other members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) in the
running of the party. Senator Shuaibu, in the letter dated May 27, 2019,
entitled, “APC: its fortunes vs misfortunes: Time to act,” demanded
Oshiomhole’s resignation to save the party from what he called imminent collapse.
Shuiabu had since declined invitation to a
five-man disciplinary committee set up by Oshiomhole with the deputy national
chairman (south), Chief Niyi Adebayo, as chairman. Senator Shuaibu, who
incidentally is from Zamfara state, has since been suspended by a factional
executive of the party in the state.
A factional publicity
secretary, Zamfara state chapter, Mohammed Bakyasuwa, led other officials of
the party to the APC national secretariat last week to submit the report which
accused both former governor, Abdulazeez Yari and Senator Lawan of breaching
Article 21(a) 2014 of the APC constitution