‘Oshiomhole has murdered democracy’ — APC chieftains ask Tinubu to save party

Twelve chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) say Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman, has “murdered” democracy in the party.

In a statement on Thursday, the founding members of the APC, said Oshiomhole’s recent actions as regards the forthcoming election in Edo state contravene the party’s constitution.

They said Oshiomhole did not have the power to give Osagie Ize-Iyamu, an Edo governorship aspirant, waiver to run for the party’s ticket or to write to the independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that party had adopted direct primary mode before a decision was taken by the national working committee (NWC).

The chieftains said it was time for Bola Tinubu, a national leader of the party, to weigh in because the APC has suffered “incalculable losses since 2015” owing largely to the mismanagement of the affairs of the party.

“It is against this background that we believe that Asiwaju Bola Tinubu has a historic duty to come out and assure party members and indeed the Nigerian citizens that he still stands on the pillars of equity, fairness and justice,” they said.

“Let us not be misunderstood. We are not in any way, suggesting that Asiwaju jumps into the fray in the many of the festering and lingering internal disagreements within the APC, requiring reconciliation.

“However, we expect that by now he should be able to provide incontestably fair leadership to all party members, through which some specific actions of the APC national chairman Comrade Adams Oshiomhole can be moderated and made to conform with internal due processes as provided in the provisions of the APC constitution.

“Comrade Oshiomhole has murdered democracy in the APC. As democrats, we believe that such actions are reprehensible and condemnable. No leadership will condone such illegal actions that can only undermine the democratic ethos upon which APC stands.”

They said the APC is inadvertently giving the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) oxygen with the way the party operates currently.

“We are inadvertently giving oxygen to the PDP, a failed political formation that we thought we had castrated in 2015,” politicians said.

“However, can there be a reconciliation in an atmosphere of impunity perpetrated by the national chairman of APC, which could not have been possible without the tacit green light from the National leader himself?

“We find it bewildering that just within a space of one month, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole had serially and violently violated the APC constitution that the silence of Asiwaju, the national leader is disconcerting.”

The APC members who signed the statement are Salihu Mustapha, Polycap Udah, Mohammed Bala Jibrin, Ray Morphy, Umar Kachalla Zubair, Sylvanus Amechi, Shaba Emangi, Emeka Enechi, Charles Idahosa, Mohammed Aboki Mahmud, Mackor Shaka Momodu and Yesufu Omonemi.