Oshiomhole describes defectors as big masquerades with little electoral value

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says the party is not bothered about the members who decamped.

At plenary on Tuesday, 15 senators and 37 house of representatives members left the party for other political parties.

Fourteen of the senators and 32 of the representatives joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Speaking with state house correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, Oshiomhole described the decampees as “so-called big masquerades with very little or no electoral value.”

“The thing going on is that we have a lot of so-called big masquerades with very little or no electoral value,” he said.

“I insist that I will not miss a sleep one minute over machinery activities. I have said and I want to repeat, this business of governance must be driven by men and women of honour.

“If the only motivation is personal interest, what is the need for me, what have I gained, if that is the basis, the earlier for those in this business for personal gain return to where they belong, the better.

“The party that I am privileged to chair is not worried at all, we are not disturbed, I am not going to miss my sleep.”

He added that the president has more political following that the lawmakers who defected in their various constituencies.

According to him, “go to the campaign, check the electoral results you will find that a lot of those who claimed to have decamped on a good day, the votes they got that made them members of the senate, our president got much more votes in their constituencies. So, we are not fooled at all.”

The party had earlier lost some of its aggrieved members to the R-APC which has formed a joint front with the PDP ahead of the 2019 elections.