Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has described Rochas Okorocha, governor of Imo state, as an embarrassment to the ruling party.
The national chairman said this at a press conference in Abuja.
His comment comes after the governor accused him of working against the interest of the party and making the APC lose five million voters.
“I also request that Oshiomhole must learn to respect the rule of law and obey court orders where they apply. This issue of treating court orders as tissue papers must stop; it doesn’t reflect the image of our party,” Okorocha had told journalists after meeting President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday.
“Since his inception and after the primaries, we have lost almost five million voters. There is anger, protest everywhere. He needs to be called to order; he has to respect the rule of law, respect court orders and do the right thing.”
But Oshiomhole denied the allegations by the governor, maintaining that he is on the right path.
“Okorocha’s action is against the Christian community in Imo state and also an embarrassment to APC… we are not ready to join him in antagonising his people,” Oshiomhole said.
“Yesterday, I watched Okorocha on television urging me to obey the rule of law but we followed due process to rescue him because the congresses conducted by my predecessor swept Okorocha out of the system. We thought it wise to restore due process and ordered fresh congress in the state.
“If Governor Rochas chose to relocate to the villa and use the ground of villa to try to intimidate me to create a dynasty, I will uphold the best interest of APC members and indeed of APC people in Imo state.”
Oshiomhole also took the opportunity of the conference to descend on Ibikunle Amosun, governor of Ogun state, accusing him of injustice and fraud in relation to the APC primaries held in Ogun.
He said the governor had called him to say that the Ogun APC was going to adopt consensus option, but he rejected it, insisting on direct primary.
“Governor Amosun decided that him and his prefered aspirant will not participate in the primaries organised by the working committee and even tried to withdraw the security that was necessary for the primary panel,” he said.
“At a stakeholders’ meeting, Governor Amosun decided to introduce the third element which didn’t feature in the resolution of the NEC, announced that Ogun State was going to adopt consensus and he proceeded to define what in his view constitute consensus.
“He announced somebody as the consensus governor, he proceeded to announce another man as the deputy governor, he went on to proclaim (himself) as the next senator and he said the current serving senator, Tejuoso, should step aside.
“He also went on to announce that the second senator also from Ogun State will step aside while another man will come in. Governor Amosun went on to announce another man who will be the next speaker, and another one as the next deputy speaker. He also singlehandedly pronounced that of the eight House of Representatives members, seven will not return. According to him, only one will return. All these he claimed is a consensus.
“However, Ogun state governor decided in his wisdom to conduct his own self help, I mean resulting to what you can call self help by conducting what he called his own primary. The Secretary to Ogun state government became the chief returning officer and I and other NWC members were watching the Channels Television and we saw the secretary to Ogun state government proclaiming himself as the returning officer, and purported to have conducted primary.”
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