Baring last minute move, Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun
and his political loyalists may have concluded arrangements to dump
the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the Accord Party.
The indication of the move was made known last night following a
threat issued by the governor during a meeting with party leaders and
loyalists across the 20 local government areas of the state
The threat according to findings was sequel to the refusal of APC
National Working Committee (NWC) of the party to uphold the candidacy
of his anointed governorship candidate, Abdul-Kabir Adekunle Akinlade
and other aspirants that emerged through thye Primaries conducted by
the Governor..
Amosun issued this threat during a meeting with some party leaders and
his loyalists across the 20 local government areas of the state held
at his private residence located inside Ibara GRA, Abeokuta.
According to a source who was present at the meeting, the governor,
who briefed his loyalists on the outcome of his meeting with President
Muhammadu Buhari as well as the national leadership of APC, did not
give any hint on the party he may join.
He further told our correspondent that Amosun informed them that
rather than the NWC iron out the issue of the governorship, he was
asked to share the national and state assemblies tickets with certain
group of individuals, who, according to him, did not participate in
both the governorship and legislative primaries.
The source added that the governor berated those he termed “Abuja
connection APC” for standing rules of the primary election on its head
and produced Abiodun as the party’s candidate instead of Akinlade, who
emerged through a direct primary.
The Ogun governor, the source stated, made it clear that he could not
work with Abiodun, who he said lacked the wherewithal to win a
senatorial district, let alone the whole of Ogun State, insisting he
would rather bid APC goodbye rather than accept his candidacy.
When told about a rumour making the rounds that the governor may
likely defect to the Accord Party, the source insisted the governor
was silent on the choice of the party, but made it clear that he would
never defect to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
In a related development, five governors of the ruling All
Progressives Congress (APC) met with President Buhari, yesterday,
behind closed-doors, at the State House, Abuja and pleaded with him to
intervene in the simmering crises occasioned by the party’s primaries.
They also assured that the APC is not jittery over the emergence of
former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar as the presidential candidate of
the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in next year’s presidential
election.
Governors at the meeting, which that was also attended by the Vice
President, Yemi Osinbajo, at the State House, were Mohammed Abubakar
(Bauchi); Abdullahi Ganduje (Kano); Kashim Shettima (Borno); and
Akinwunmi Ambode (Lagos) and Rochas Okorocha (Imo), as well as the
Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha.
Okorocha, who is also Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum told State
House Correspondents what they discussed with the president.
“We are here as a delegation of APC governors, to congratulate the
president, for emerging the presidential candidate of our great party
APC for the 2019 election and we believe that its victory
well-deserved. The honour we have given him confirms our confidence in
the man Buhari.
“The president is quite happy with this visit and he will soon give us
a date as we requested, to celebrate him and tell the world about our
joy and happiness that he emerged our presidential flag-bearer, which
is victory assured come 2019,” he said.
Asked about plans to address issues arising from the recent primary
elections in the party, Okorocha replied: “We have looked at issues
concerning our primaries. In every democracy, we expect some kind of
disagreement and we have kindly requested that something be done fast,
to bring all warring factions together so we can have a united party
to face the challenges ahead and we are happy that that will soon take
place.
“Most of the problems are already being resolved, except for one or
two states like Zamfara and where it becomes very difficult, we will
ask for the President’s intervention in the matter.
“Reconciliation is the main thing we want because we do not want to go
into this battle a divided family and we want to make sure that all
governors are intact, all National Assembly members are intact while
going into this battle,” he stressed.
The governor said the APC will not be dragged into what he described
as noise by the opposition, ahead of the 2019 election.
Rather, he said the campaign of the party would be based on issues.
“Our election, this time, will not engage on castigations or talking.
We will be taking on issues; Nigerians are tired of political abuses.
What we want to be talking about are issues, the track records of
people involved in our elections.
“Nigerians are wise now. Before they elect anybody they will ask
questions, what has been your track record, who were you before, who
are you now and everything about you. And, for that reason, we are
confident that in 2019, APC will go through.”
On whether the controversy surrounding Zamfara State APC primaries was
part of the discussion with the president, he said, “Zamfara is one of
the issues that we have addressed also.”
On Atiku’s candidacy, he said: “I don’t know about talking tough, we
can’t be jittery and history is there to speak, history is very
important and it is there to speak.
“So, as I said, we are not going to engage in this verbal war with
anybody, we will be talking about issues.
“If we say ‘look, you are not good,’ we tell you what we can do and we
cannot do and what others cannot do.
“APC is not going to join in those talkshops but we are discussing
issues of what our party can for our people.”
Asked what Buhari’s response was, he replied: “The president is quite
happy with the whole outing and he will give us a date to celebrate
him and tell the world our joy and happiness, that he emerged as our
presidential flag-bearer which is victory assured 2019
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