A National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has blamed his recent travails on some chieftains of the party outside his state.
Oshiomhole spoke to State House Correspondents after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari Thursday evening at the Presidential Villa, just hours after a Federal High Court in Kano gave a restraining order in his favour.
He said despite efforts by those he dubbed as ‘blacklegs’, whom he accused of holding membership of other opposition parties, his leadership of the party would be determined by God.
The party Chairman lamented that those who have been working to undo him had committed themselves to the fight not because he had performed poorly but because he had refused to allow them to abuse their privileged places in the party.
He also claimed that the ambition of some leading members of the party to contest the office of the President in 2023 had been a major motivation for many of the plots against him.
According to him, the court order, which called for his suspension was generated by the National Vice Chairman (Northwest), Comrade Mustapha Salihu and four others, adding that his lawyers had faulted the order gotten against him, saying it was issued by a court out of jurisdiction.
Speaking about those he alleged were behind the onslaught against him and their alleged motives, he said: “Those behind this plot, the hands you saw which includes as you saw yesterday, the Edo State governor and his people jubilating but that is the irony of life that you will help give birth to a child and the child look for cutlass to want to chop off your neck. It has happened in history, it has happened in this country so I won’t be only person.
“But there are other forces who see me for whatever reason as a threat to them. And those leading this anti-Oshiomhole campaign, some of them I emphasize, cannot even boast of a counselor in their state even as they lay claim to leadership position in our party.
“I am proud to say that I have done my best not only when I was a governor, I have done my best as chairman of this party.
” I have worked not only along members of the party and with support of the good people of Nigeria for the president to be re-elected, for us to have majority in the two chambers of the National Assembly.
“I also worked hard to deliver my unit, my ward, I worked hard to deliver my local government, I worked hard to deliver my federal constituency three of them in my senatorial zone, I also worked hard to deliver my senator.
“Those fighting me couldn’t deliver even a counselor of a local government in their unit.
“And they just feel that if they cannot give me orders then they must do everything to embarrass my person, but I believe that he who God stands with no man born of a woman can bring him down.”
He went on: “I can’t say more than that. Those who are parading themselves, holding meetings at night, my prayer to my God is that let them meet at night, what they do at night will be destroyed my light in the day time.
“I don’t go for night business I do day business. They know themselves, they know me and I know them.
“It is just unfortunate that if you have out of 100, 90 people are happy with you, will call and say well done, those 10 who are not are the ones that will call press conference to denounce you, they are the ones who will hold midnight meetings in a minister’s house to say how do we bring him down.
“They are the one who will plot how do we get rid of him because they want to be president in 2023 even when their hold on their state at the moment is doubtful If they were to go for referendum in terms of their approval rating.
“But God will see me through, He knows my heart, He knows my conscience and He knows the wishes of the overall majority of our members and to them I remain ever grateful”, he said.
On why they want him out, Oshiomhole explained: “You see there is an issue in this country. People want strong leadership, the averaged Nigerian want to have a strong leader for Nigeria, they want to have strong leaders in various institutions, they want institutions that are strong enough that cannot be controlled by individuals. That was why President Obama said, what Africa needs are strong institutions not strong persons.
“Unfortunately, very few section of our elites want to weaken institutions so that they can control and if you refuse to oblige them the misuse of your institution then they go for your jocular, that is the only thing. Otherwise I ask you, remember the confusion we had at the last NEC meeting?
“That meeting took place exactly a week or about 10 days after we had won Kogi election, Bayelsa election before the court took it and donated it to somebody else.
“Yet in the face of this victory, people said Oshiomhole must be removed, precisely because we won more seats.
“But you see whatever you do, those who want to fight you will fight you. But I know that my tenure will be defined my God not by man.
“And I worry more about what I will be remembered for when I was chairman rather than how long I was chairman.
“And I am convinced that I have done my very best, mistakes would have been made and I want to see the one person who will say he has never made mistakes.”
Speaking on the court order obtained against him, Oshiomhole said “just yesterday (Wednesday) morning suddenly I saw in the news that an FCT High Court has suspended me as national chairman.
“And that the person who went to court includes one of my vice chairmen, north East, one Mustapha (Mustapha Salihu APC National Vice Chairman Northeast) and four others. I was taken back because in the same suit they joined the APC, the police as the DSS.
“Our lawyers told me that in law that when you sue a federal agency, FCT High Court has no jurisdiction to entertain it. Number two, the purported suspension of my person by my ward, first I am going to give you a document to that effect so that you can form your opinion.
” Number three, I am not an officer of my ward, I am the national chairman of my party, elected at a national convention by over 7,000 delegates, so how could nine persons sit down somewhere and purport that they have removed a national chairman.
“And the court contrary to all logic, all judicial precedence find comfort in granting an interim interlocutory order to stop me from functioning pending when the matter is determine.
” In other words, he has given the order without the facts being laid before him and in the process adjourned the case to 7th of April.
“The calculations are clear that between now and April 7th, my opponent in the system would have had ample time to do all the mischievous plans they have in place to distabilise the APC.
“Because, some of them have membership of more than one political party. But happily this afternoon, a federal high court that I believe that has jurisdictions on federal issues because the DSS, the police are not state institutions but federal institutions, has given an appropriate order to restrain the so called suspension that was allegedly impose on me by my ward in Edo State.
READ ALSO: My troublers are not from Edo – Oshiomhole
“I thought that I had a duty to brief Mr. President as the overall leader of our party about this development. Incidentally, when I requested for the audience yesterday I wasn’t sure what has happened today will happen.
“But I had a duty to inform him about the court order. But happily before coming here, the order from a Federal High Court that has made nonsense of what the FCT court purported to have done has already settled the question.
“And I showed to the president the resolutions of my ward even though a ward executive does not have the powers to remove a national chairman, just to say that the document that we have says clearly that my ward passed vote of confidence on me.
“How the court can hold vote of confidence and twist it to mean vote of no confidence, only that judge can explain it to himself.
“But the good news is that this is not a final court nor is it the only court, incidentally it is just the court that didn’t have the jurisdiction even to listen to this matter. =
“And our lawyers so pointed it out but the judge was determined to obliged those who want to destabilise the All Progressive Congress.”
0 Comments