The crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC) over its loss of the National Assembly leadership positions is set to worsen as party leaders are spoiling for a war with the National Chairman, Chief John Odigie- Oyegun, on the matter. Odigie-Oyegun, in what amounted to a volteface by the APC had, last Friday, said the party had accepted the emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate president and Hon. Yakubu Dogara as House of Representatives speaker.
The duo had, in defiance of the APC, ran against the party’s official candidates for the positions, Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila. While Lawan had no chance of running against Saraki who was elected unopposed as APC senators, majorly his supporters, were at the International Conference Centre, Abuja for a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Gbajabiamila lost by a slim margin to Dogara.
An enraged governing party had rejected their elections and vowed to punish them. Last Thursday, APC National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, had said the party would soon set up a disciplinary committee to probe the involvement of members involved in the victories of Saraki and Dogara. But fielding questions from State House correspondents in Abuja a day after Mohammed’s statement, the national chairman had described the election of Saraki as the Senate president as legitimate and that the party had accepted its fate. “Of course, he has been duly elected by his colleagues. End of story.
We have a reality and we must live with it,” he said. The party’s NWC had met on Wednesday and agreed to sanction Saraki and other erring lawmakers. But New Telegraph learnt yesterday that Odigie- Oyegun’s statement that the party had accepted the emergence of Saraki and Dogara, was made without consultations. Besides, he was accused of conniving with the duo to undermine APC and bring the party to ridicule.
New Telegraph learnt that most members of the National Working Committee (NWC) were planning to move against the party’s national chairman for taking unilateral position that is at variance with the APC leadership on the matter. Some of the NWC members said they were unhappy with the national chairman and they might pass a vote of no confidence on him when next they meet. “Oyegun has lost the moral compass to lead the APC. His decision cannot override that of the entire NWC. He has to explain to us where he derives his power from to override the decision of the entire body. “I can tell you that most of us in the APC NWC are not happy with the national chairman. If he has dealings with Saraki, he should let the world know. The general feeling is that Oyegun cannot genuinely lead us going by his partisanship stance,” a member of the NWC said yesterday.
“Oyegun should tell us why he took the position against that of the party. Is he above the party? We met and agreed that the erring lawmakers should be sanctioned to instill discipline in the party. So why must he go against the NWC decision? Did we meet to reverse our initial position? So why the volteface?” another NWC member asked. Some of the NWC members also accused Odigie- Oyegun of holding a secret meeting with former Vice- President Atiku Abubakar and Saraki in Abuja last Thursday. An impeccable source said Odigie-Oyegun met with Atiku and Saraki on how to take over the party from former Governor of Lagos State, Senator Bola Tinubu. Some chieftains of the party are also calling for the removal of Odigie- Oyegun over his failure to provide an effective leadership for the party.
Efforts to get Odigie- Oyegun’s response proved abortive as he failed to pick calls to his phone and had not responded to text message sent to him as at 9.30pm yesterday. Also, Mohammed could not be reached to shed more light on the crisis of confidence among party chiefs on the emergence of Saraki and Dogara.
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