EXTRA: Oshiomhole thanks judges who upheld his suspension

Adams Oshiomhole, suspended national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says he has accepted the court’s verdict which upheld his suspension.

Oshiomhole spoke during Politics Today, a Channels Television programme, on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the court of appeal affirmed the suspension of Oshiomhole as national chairman of the APC.

An Abuja high court in March 2020 ordered the suspension of Oshiomhole as the national chairman of the APC but he appealed against the judgement.

The appellate court, however, dismissed Oshiomhole’s appeal for lacking in merit.

When he appeared on Channels Television on Wednesday, Oshiomhole said his next line of action will be determined by his lawyers.

“We thank their lordships, they have given their judgement. In our democracy, the court is an independent arm of government,” he said.

“When they hand that judgment, it is not for you to pick whether you will obey or not. I accept their judgement in good fate.

“My lawyers will advise having studied the judgement, what the next line of action will be. So at this point, I will just thank their Lordships for their judgment and look forward to my lawyers on what should be the next line if there should be another next line of action.”

Asked if he would instruct his lawyers to appeal the ruling of the appellate court, he said: “What I do next would be based on my legal advice and my lawyers will act on that. I don’t think I need to communicate that through the television. It’s a relationship between a lawyer and his client. And I think we should leave it at that.”

He said Victor Gaidom, deputy national secretary of the APC, is not next in line for his position and should refrain from acting in that capacity to prevent destabilising the party.

Gaidom had declared himself as national chairman earlier in the day.

This was after Abiola Ajimobi, former governor of Oyo state, was named as the acting national chairman of the party.

“In the absence of the chairman, it should be deputy chairman; in the absence of the deputy, it should be the vice-chairman, how does the deputy national secretary come in?” Oshiomhole asked

He urged members of the party to put the interest of the APC first desist from using “any externality to destabilise the party”.