Adams Oshiomhole, APC leader
Insists On Uzodinma, Abiodun, Says APC Not A Party For Emperors And Political Dynasties
The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, yesterday, assured that President Muhammadu Buhari would defeat his rival of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar.
Speaking to journalists in Abuja, he insisted that there was no way Nigerians would vote for Atiku, instead of Buhari, whose integrity, he said, is known to the electorate, in the race for the Presidency next year, adding: “We will defeat Atiku the way we have defeated him before.”
Oshiomhole, who recalled how Buhari defeated Atiku in the party’s presidential primaries in 2014 in Lagos, faulted the claim by Imo State Governor Rocha Okorocha that Buhari would lose five million votes over the party’s rejection of his preferred choice for the governorship, Uche Nwosu.He argued that there was no way Okorocha could muster five million votes against the APC, when it was trite knowledge that the entire voting population of Imo is not up to a million voters.
Oshiomhole also justified the party’s position on the Rivers, Imo, Ogun and Zamfara states governorship primaries, saying it was in line with its constitution and the wishes of the members.On Rivers, where the party settled for Mr. Tonye Cole as its governorship candidate, he said it was in line with the pronouncement of the Supreme Court.
For Imo, Oshiomhole, who accused Okorocha of attempting to foist his in-law, Nwosu, on the people of the state, noted that the choice of Hope Uzodinma was in the best interest of the party.Describing Okorocha as “an embarrassment” to the APC as a party, he said would not help the Imo state governor to build a political dynasty in the Southeast, adding: “The NWC has met and we have upheld the result of the Gulak Committee and we have prepared the name of Senator Hope Uzodinma to be submitted to the Independent national Electoral Commission (INEC).
“If Okorocha chose to relocate to the Villa and use the ground of the Villa to try to intimidate me to create a political dynasty by foisting his in-law on the people of Imo State against their wishes, I will even, on one leg, but powered by the truth, uphold the best interest of APC members and indeed of APC people in Imo State.”
On Ogun, he said there was no way the party would have succumbed to the desires of Governor Ibikunle Amosun, who he said was keen on imposing House of Representatives member, Adekunle Akinlabi, alongside 39 other persons, as the governorship, national and states assemblies candidates of the party under the guise of consensus arrangement.
Insisting that Mr. Dapo Abiodun, who was declared winner of the state governorship primaries, remains the candidate of the party, Oshiomhole accused Amosun of resorting to self-help in his desperate bid to arm-twist the party to do his bindings.He stated: “Amosun, having lost through the law courts, chose to resort to name-dropping and he has approached everyone he thinks can help him to undermine the extant provisions of the law and the decision of a competent court.
“He got some traditional rulers, without the most prominent rulers, like the Awujale of Ijebu land, to come to Abuja to put pressure on me to reverse what has been properly done and to accept what is clearly unlawful, undemocratic, immoral and tantamount to abuse of power.
“Our constitution does not recognise emperors. There are no emperors in APC and if anybody tries to reinvent himself as one, it would be an exercise in futility. Certainly, with all sense of modesty, it won’t be under my leadership. I am clear about our rules, about power and I am clear about the limitations of those powers.”
He also insisted that INEC lacks the powers to stop the party from fielding candidates to vie for various elective positions in next year’s elections.
