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Tag: Adams Oshiomhole

  • Those fighting Oshiomhole are enemies of Buhari, says lawmaker

    The lawmaker representing Etsako Constituency in the House of Representatives Hon. Johnson Oghuma, has said that those fighting National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, were enemies of President Muhammadu Buhari.

    Honorable Oghuma said some governors are working with the opposition People’s Democratic Party to tear the APC apart ahead of the 2019 general election.

    Oghuma who spoke to newsmen at a press briefing said the wicked plot against Oshiomhole would fail.

    He described as untrue allegations of financial inducement by some aspirants against Comrade Oshiomhole

    Oghuma lampooned Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, for creating crisis in the party over the lost bid to impose his son in-law as his successor.

    He reminded Governor Rochas that there is no sole proprietor of the APC.

    “It is surprising that people called leaders of our party will allow opposition to be manipulating them the same way some of our governors will allow opposition to be remoting them even in the national Assembly to be working against the party that brought them to the house only for them to cross -carpet.

    Read Also: Group condemns Oshiomhole’s harassment

    “It is sad that this same people are propagating fake news and our people are helping them. An organization where everybody is a leader cannot stand the test of time. It is high time we allow our leader elected to lead the party.

    “Everybody cannot be Chairman of the party at the same time. Those elected to run our party should be given free hand to do.  Oshiomhole was elected Governor for eight years and he showed good and purposeful leadership.

    “I am a candidate and it is untrue that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole collected money from anybody. Oshiomhole that I know cannot take bribe. He is a man of integrity. Okorocha and his likes are the problem of our party. He is not the owner of APC, the party belongs to all.

    “Majority of our party members are not complaining. A situation where an individual will convert all political positions in his state to family members is strange and unacceptable to our APC.

    “We will resist any attempt to remove him from office. We challenge Okorocha to tell Nigerians his contribution to the emergence of Buhari in 2015 even as a sitting governor.  As we speak majority of his assembly members have gone to pick ticket in other parties”.

  • Youths vow to resist Oshiomhole’s removal

    The Akoko-Edo Youth Vanguard has threatened to resist any attempt to  remove or further humiliate National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

    It said the good work of Comrade Oshiomhole in re-positioning the APC has resulted to victories recorded in Ekiti and Osun State governorship polls.

    National Coordinator of the group, Comrade Segun Jasper, said the resort to use the DSS to harass Comrade Oshiomhole would be an exercise in futility.

    Comrade Jasper stated that the complaints of three governors over the conduct of the APC primaries should not be taken seriously because the action of the National Working Committee of the APC was the best for the party.

    Jasper said the group would mobilize over 20,000 of its members to Abuja to protest the humiliation of Oshiomhole.

    Read Also: I’m not behind Oshiomhole’s alleged detention – Amosun

    According to him, “We know the fifth columnists in the APC that are working for the opposition PDP. What we know is that their plans will fall to pieces.

    “The questioning of our National Chairman is an embarrassment to lovers of democracy in the ruling APC. We will not sit back and watch some selfish governors orchestrate their evil plans against Oshiomhole.

    “We have resolved to storm Abuja next week Tuesday with thousands of our supporters to show solidarity to our chairman and thank him for leading the APC in the path of light.”

  • Ogun women hail NWC decision on Abiodun

    Hundreds of women Women in Ogun State under the aegis of Women In Politics(WIN) on Thursday staged a peaceful rally in support of decision and steadfastness of the National Working Committee(NWC) of the All Progressives Congress regarding the party’s governorship candidate in Ogun State, Prince  Dapo Abiodun.

    The women who  stormed the Secretariat of the state Council of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Abeokuta, the state capital, bearing  placards with inscriptions hailing the APC NWC under the leadership of the Adams Oshiomhole, said “the party has spoken on Ogun and Dapo Abiodun is the answer,” urging party members to bury their differences and support the candidate to emerge victorious in 2019.

    Some of the inscriptions on placards, read : ” The Party has spoken, Dapo Abiodun is our man, “We kick against imposition,  Dapo Abiodun is the answer, women in politics say Dapo Abiodun is the one.”

    Addressing reporters during the peaceful rally, the President, Mrs Abosede Akande, disclosed that the group  worked hard enough to return the progressives in government in Ogun State since 2011, vowing that they would repeat the same feat for Abiodun candidature in 2019.

    Banking on members having their Permanent Voter Card(PVC), they would reject any inducement and vote for Abiodun, expressing the confidence that the candidate would put women into consideration and not turn his back on them if elected into office.

    Read Also: Why I want to govern Ogun, by AD candidate

    He said:  “We want Dapo Abiodun to be our Governor, God has done it for us. The suffering is so much in the State. We want Dapo Abiodun to be the Governor. We are going to vote en-mass for  Abiodun.

    “We will reject money for vote, we have our PVC’s to vote for Dapo Abiodun, we support the NWC decision and we are also giving our support to Adams Oshiomhole.”

    Earlier leaders of the  All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ikenne Local Government of Ogun of State  urged Governor Ibikunle Amosun to support the popular choice of Prince Dapo Abiodun as governorship candidate of the party for 2019 gubernatorial election and not scuttle the chances of the party retaining power in the state beyond 2019.

    The APC leaders who described the oil magnate and real estate player as a seasoned administrator, selfless politician and highly successful manager of men and resources, said Abiodun remained the best man to consolidate on many giant strides the governor had recorded in the last seven years.

    Honourable Idowu Solaru who addressed the men’s rally in Ikenne, the home town of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, noted that Amosun raised the bar of governance, especially in the areas of infrastructure in the state and appealed to him to throw his weight behind Prince Dapo Abiodun.

    “Prince Dapo Abiodun who we are very proud of as one of our distinguished sons in Ikenne local government is undoubtedly very qualified for the tasks ahead. He has the competence and capacity to take the state to greater height.

    “He remain the best man to continue the mission to rebuild beyond May 2019. We are here to identify with the mandate freely given to our son and to as well beg the governor to let his candidature be, it is for the good of our party and the people of Ogun state,”  he said.

    Also, Emmanuel Ayodele lauded President Muammadu Buhari, Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osibajo and National Chairman of APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomole for ensuring that the will of general members of the party in the state to pick a governorship candidate of their desire prevailed.

    Oyenuga described Prince Abiodun as the best foot APC must put forward for 2019 governorship challenge in the state urging the governor to please eschew any sort of bitterness, accept general wish of the party members as a good democrat and give his support to the billionaire business mogul to take over from him.

  • I won’t mortgage my conscience over APC crisis – Oshiomhole

    The National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Wednesday said that he would not bow to pressure that will make him act against his conscience over the crisis in the party.

    He made the declaration after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Speaking with State House corespondents at the end of the meeting, he said that only three APC governors were unhappy with his running of the party while the majority are confident that he is doing his best.

    According to him, he  would rather obey his conscience than succumb to pressures that will make him do what is wrong.

    He said: “Let me say that if there is a choice between my conscience-what I believe is right and mortgaging that conscience in order to keep the job, I will have no difficulty resolving it in favour of my conscience.

    “And those who know me know that at my age I cannot learn new tricks. I am absolutely committed to justice, fairness, I am a stickler to enforcement of rules; because the source of relevance is derived from rules. I have lived my life fighting for justice and fairness.”

    The problem he has with the aggrieved governors, he said, is a family matters which he is confident will be resolved.

    He added “Three governors are not particularly pleased with the outcome of the primaries in their states.

    Change is easy, we all want change but the process of change can be traumatizing.

    “These are internal family issues; they are my friends, and that is important , even in moment of distress, that friendship is I want to believe is enough to help us to build a reconciliation.

    “There is no running away from the fact that we are the governing party who has a higher stake; we are the one in the news; if we were in the stock market, our shares would have increased considerably.

    “So, it is not surprising that there is some disquiet but I remain a friend to this governors, I respect them; I appreciate them for the fact that but for their support, I will not be chairman and you don’t go stepping on toes of those who helped you to get into position..

    “But however, I thought I was clear and I remain clear that helping me to get to the position, it was to help APC to return to its core values of progressive politics, of fairness, of justice, of adherence to rule of law and total submission to the extant provisions of our party constitution.

    “In doing that, you don’t look at power; you look at what is; what is just.

    I think that with time, we will reconcile all these; (Ibikunle) Amosun is my good friend; we have known each other for a very long time; we exchange personal visits in addition to official visits; Zamfara governor has been the  Chairman of NGF and I was an active member of that forum; we have wonderful time together and I believe in the future, we are still going to have wonderful time together; Rochas Okorocha was one of those who had issues with my predecessor and I did my best to try and resolve those issues in a way that has been given him a new platform.

    “And I am happy that God used us to do that not by cheating in his favour but by doing what is right.” he said

    Oshiomhole went on “It is just that once you stick to the goal, sometimes, you either get caught on the right side or the wrong side.

    I will say it is the tree that bears fruits that attracts stones; the tree that doesn’t bear fruits doesn’t attract any stones.

    “I have no illusions; this job I am doing is not a pensionable job; but I did promise myself that if I am going to be on this job for one day, I will do according to the rules and according to my conscience; I will be fair and just to all and God will give me the courage and the wisdom to to do his will. How far that can take me is exclusively in the hands of God.

    “The truth is we have 36 states and FCT and we do have 36 state organs and FCT and as far as I know, we have 23 governors; to be exact.

    Read Also: Anti-Oshiomole protest rocks Imo

    “I believe three governors are not particularly pleased with the outcome of the primaries in their states and you cannot grudge anyone for not being happy if a particular outcome does not coincide with his expectations.

    “I don’t  have power to appoint and I don’t have power to change particularly when things have been properly done.

    “Now if this makes one, two or three people unhappy, it is unfortunate but they are my friends. If things are to be reduced to who is my friend, who I can do favour to, obviously having been a governor for eight years, I have more friends and more governors than any other group within the party whether these are Senators, House of Reps members or other aspirants within the party.

    “If there was any temptation in Nigeria, it is temptation towards power not temptation towards the powerless.

    “So, all I have tired is to find some courage to enforce the rules and I think an overwhelming majority of the governors appreciate that I have done my best because change is not easy.

    “We all want change but the process of change can be quite traumatising, because it is not painless. People have been used to a particular way of doing things; to encourge them to do them differently can be a challenge.

    “We have a political system where it seems to the observer and even the analyst, that we have run a political system over the years where of you are very powerful, you simply can’t

    “So, here I am as national chairman conducting primaries, the outcome of which some very powerful people did not see their preferred candidate emerging.” he said

    He regretted that it is only in Nigeria that one can have 10 aspirants competing for one seat and one person emerges and the remaining nine will wonder why they didn’t win.

  • Secure parliament…

    Seek  ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” admonishes the scriptures in Matthew 6:33, “and all these things would be added unto you.”  That was the Christ Jesus telling the multitude to shun mammon, and glory in godly living.

    If people’s faith is their way of life, then politics is the life of citizens in a democracy.  Even if you are not an active politician, you’re periodically being called to exercise your franchise by those politicians, for whom politics is a way of life.

    Whatever your attitude, even more than the hyper-visible executive positions of president and governors, just know that securing the parliament is key.  If you did that, you just may have secured the political equivalent of the biblical kingdom of God, and frankly, you can expect every other thing to follow.

    How so?  Ask All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.  He has been reported in the news, saying his ruling federal party would reward loyal party members in the National Assembly, and do away with opportunists and traitors.

    Ha, Comarade Adams should know!  Since 2015, his party had endured a pair, at the helm of its parliamentary machine, who answer Dr. Jerkyl, representing APC during the day; but no less zealously, answer Mr. Hyde of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at night.

    The duo of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara ensured a slowdown, if not outright sabotage, of legislative backing for President Muhammadu Buhari’s programmes — in delayed budgets, padded budgets, rogue bills forged to ensure own selfish interests, threat to abandon parliamentary confirmation duties as rogue protest, sundry cynical filibustering and allied parliamentary rascality, that tend to de-market the government in which they both served.

    The latest phase of that enemy-in-the-house-war-of-attrition took off when Saraki announced senatorial defections to the opposition, hoping to build a new rogue majority that would still retain him as senate president, even in PDP colours!  Talking of Mr. Hyde finally coming out in the open!  Since that backfired, it’s been parliamentary shutdown — maybe until new stratagems are forged?

    Dogara has, more or less, pranced in Saraki’s wide and merry way.  As he has crossed over to PDP, he stands degraded, by the standing numbers, as a minority lawmaker.  Yet, he holds on as “Speaker”.  Well, the bastion of this 8th National Assembly is hardly honour!

    Hardball’s concern is not parliamentary personalities per se.  Politicians of several hues would still be politicians and would play politics — euphemism for cynical opportunism, if they can get away with it.

    Hardball is rather concerned with getting the people a good deal.  That is what the 8th National Assembly, under the duo of Saraki and Dogara, are not doing.

    That is why, as we build up to another bout of elections, the parties must ensure that, whoever their candidates are, they are not just another band of opportunists, who would feed fat, mouth cant but leave the people’s job undone.

    Which is why it is imperative to secure the parliament.  It starts, first with the parties to present their best minds — diligent, honest, industrious and loyal to their party’s programmes.  Then, the stage moves on for the people to choose right.

    Those done, there would be assurance that both the executive and legislature are on the same page, double-charged to delivering a renascent Nigeria, where the people come first, and not the antics and whims decadent leaders, no more than vicious power dealers.

     

  • Secure parliament…

    “Seek  ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness” admonishes the scriptures in Matthew 6:33, “and all these things would be added unto you.”  That was the Christ Jesus telling the multitude to shun mammon, and glory in godly living.

    If people’s faith is their way of life, then politics is the life of citizens in a democracy.  Even if you are not an active politician, you’re periodically being called to exercise your franchise by those politicians, for whom politics is a way of life.

    Whatever your attitude, even more than the hyper-visible executive positions of president and governors, just know that securing the parliament is key.  If you did that, you just may have secured the political equivalent of the biblical kingdom of God, and frankly, you can expect every other thing to follow.

    How so?  Ask All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.  He has been reported in the news, saying his ruling federal party would reward loyal party members in the National Assembly, and do away with opportunists and traitors.

    Ha, Comarade Adams should know!  Since 2015, his party had endured a pair, at the helm of its parliamentary machine, who answer Dr. Jerkyl, representing APC during the day; but no less zealously, answer Mr. Hyde of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at night.

    The duo of Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara ensured a slowdown, if not outright sabotage, of legislative backing for President Muhammadu Buhari’s programmes — in delayed budgets, padded budgets, rogue bills forged to ensure own selfish interests, threat to abandon parliamentary confirmation duties as rogue protest, sundry cynical filibustering and allied parliamentary rascality, that tend to de-market the government in which they both served.

    The latest phase of that enemy-in-the-house-war-of-attrition took off when Saraki announced senatorial defections to the opposition, hoping to build a new rogue majority that would still retain him as senate president, even in PDP colours!  Talking of Mr. Hyde finally coming out in the open!  Since that backfired, it’s been parliamentary shutdown — maybe until new stratagems are forged?

    Dogara has, more or less, pranced in Saraki’s wide and merry way.  As he has crossed over to PDP, he stands degraded, by the standing numbers, as a minority lawmaker.  Yet, he holds on as “Speaker”.  Well, the bastion of this 8th National Assembly is hardly honour!

    Hardball’s concern is not parliamentary personalities per se.  Politicians of several hues would still be politicians and would play politics — euphemism for cynical opportunism, if they can get away with it.

    Hardball is rather concerned with getting the people a good deal.  That is what the 8th National Assembly, under the duo of Saraki and Dogara, are not doing.

    That is why, as we build up to another bout of elections, the parties must ensure that, whoever their candidates are, they are not just another band of opportunists, who would feed fat, mouth cant but leave the people’s job undone.

    Which is why it is imperative to secure the parliament.  It starts, first with the parties to present their best minds — diligent, honest, industrious and loyal to their party’s programmes.  Then, the stage moves on for the people to choose right.

    Those done, there would be assurance that both the executive and legislature are on the same page, double-charged to delivering a renascent Nigeria, where the people come first, and not the antics and whims decadent leaders, no more than vicious power dealers.

  • Marafa attacks Yari over Oshiomhole ‘must go protest’

    Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Garba Marafa on Thursday faulted the protest in Gusau, Zamfara State capital, calling for the sack of the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

    Marafa who is front lie governorship contender in Zamfara State said that a number of sponsored protesters stormed Gusau, the state capital on Thursday calling for the immediate removal of Oshiomhole over his respect for the rule of law in the conduct of party primaries.

    The Zamfara Central senator in a statement he issued in Abuja, noted the protesters were “mobilised by the State Governor, Abdulaziz Yari following his inability to bend rules to impose candidates who are his cronies on the party in the state.”

    The ranking Senator who is also as” leading governorship aspirant of the APC in Zamfara State,” said that Yari should be the one to be sacked and not Oshiomhole.”

    He described the APC national chairman as “a law abiding leader.”

    Marafa said, “Yari and his co- travelers are wrong and Comrade Oshiomhole is right as far as the issues in the party are concerned.”

    The senator who recalled the genesis of the party crisis in Zamfara, insisted that “primaries were not conducted in Zamfara State and there was no consensus either!”

    He said, “There was a court order that says all parties should not take any step that will render useless the litigation  before it. The party under the able leadership of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole respected the order and said all parties in the crisis should hands off.  The party and it leadership should be commended for respecting the law, a foundation upon which APC was built.

    Read Also: No cause for alarm, says Oshiomhole

    “Two, when the committee of the NWC came to conduct the primary in Zamfara,  violent orchestrated by Yari’s people erupted. The committee was forced to cancel  the election. This is also a valid thing. The position taken by the Governor that primaries should be conducted by the executives in his camp was irresponsible, contemptuous and height of lawlessness.

    “The crux of the matter is that there was no election and there was no consensus in Zamfara. So, we are commending Comrade Oshiomhole and INEC for respecting the court order.”

    Marafa said the millions of Naira spent by Yari to allegedly organize the protest should have been channelled towards securing the release of 17 persons including two young girls kidnapped in Dauran, Jangebe, Magami and other locations in the state.

    ” The money spent on the protest should have been used to assist the security agencies in the state to rescue the abducted  persons. The Governor has stopped  assisting security agencies  with fund in the state in the last five months,” he said.

    Marafa assured that majority of APC family members in Zamfara are solidly behind Oshiomhole and the leadership of the party.

  • APC: Still a long way to party?

    The sensational allegation, by a body that calls itself the Buhari Support Group (BSG), that some All Progressives Congress (APC) governors were working against President Muhammadu Buhari, Chairman Adams Oshiomhole and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, has sure taken the APC cosmos by storm.

    Most of the governors have issued sharp ripostes, which, to be honest make a lot of sense.

    But instead of viewing it all as some putative rebellion against party authority and supremacy, it is perhaps wise to situate it within the contestation of various tendencies, within a very young political party, which nevertheless has had a chequered history, in terms of crisis management.

    A post-nPDP APC, with the combined policy treachery of Senate President Bukola Saraki and House of Representatives Speaker Yakubu Dogara, would appear to face new teething problems.

    But it could also have resulted from in-built pathologies, accumulated from the post-political new breed era, from Ibrahim Babangida’s experiment, that started in 1991.  With a stroke of the pen, IBB built completely new parties and hoped the tendencies and affiliations to 1st and 2nd Republic parties would vanish in the new golden vacuum!

    Well, it hasn’t — and the political party system has been the poorer for it, even with the new breed of yore now coming of age.

    So, if some governors are indeed unhappy with APC’s new direction under Oshiomhole, that is only to be expected.  For the hitherto all-mighty governors — the party be damned! — that portends a power paradise lost, never to be regained.

    It is natural for any group about to lose power to grumble and throw tantrums.  Doing otherwise would not have been human.  If the governors were hitherto lords and masters, who could impose, drop and re-impose candidates, by virtue of their exalted elected posts, it would be only natural for them to kick.

    Now link that with the flamboyant and swash-buckling Oshiomhole style — Oshiomhole, who probably as a governor, was guilty of what he now tries to stamp out among the present corps of APC governors — and you can understand the gubernatorial angst.

    But if the ruling party must move from its teething stages, to build a cohesive and highly integrated outfit, able to impose discipline and enforce its authority, the governors and other hierarchs just must reconcile themselves to shedding present powers for the future good of their party.

    Besides, beyond APC, the Nigerian party system is at the crossroads.  The APC experience: a party, goaded by a treacherous few, that made itself an opposition against itself (reference Saraki’s 8th National Assembly), is only the latest disturbing example.

    Earlier, the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had had a field day subverting other parties by poaching their parliamentary members and goading them to cross over, in a brazen display of real-politik, in its ugliest form.

    That has worsened the ideological crisis among the parties (you belong to one, you belong to all).  It has also led to errant and fickle defections, which again the present Saraki National Assembly has brought to a rather ugly nadir.

    So, while the APC governors and other hierarchs fume, at the loss of near-absolute powers to build intra-party dynasties, Hardball thinks the Oshiomhole reforms are on the right track.

    Nigeria’s democracy needs a re-build of the party as a vibrant entity with defined policy and ideological direction.  That is the direction every political party should go.

  • APC primaries exposed Oshiomhole’s incompetence, says Akeredolu

    Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu on Wednesday said the All Progressives Congress (APC) primaries exposed the incompetence of its chairman Adams Oshiomhole.

    He described the primaries as “political charade”, saying they not only exposed the “sheer incompetence” of APC’s national leadership, but revealed “a shocking proclivity towards banditry and impunity”.

    Akeredolu said recent events justified his opposition to Oshiomhole’s choice as party chairman.

    According to him, those who feel aggrieved reserve the right to demand justice, including calling for Oshiomhole’s removal.

    The governor, however, restated his commitment to work “assiduously” for President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election, who he said is loved by the people of Ondo who see his re-election as a “patriotic duty”.

    Akeredolu, in a statement by his Senior Special Adviser on Special Duties and Strategy Dr Doyin Odebowale, was reacting to an allegation that three governors, led by Akeredolu, was bent on sabotaging the party.

    During a pro-Oshiomhole protest at the APC Secretariat in Abuja, Akeredolu’s name was mentioned as the “leader” of “conservatives” bent on working against the re-election bid of President  Buhari the removal of Oshiomole as APC chairman.

    But, Akeredolu, who described organizers of the protest as “opportunists”, denied the allegation that he led governors of Ogun, Kaduna Adamawa and Ekiti States against Oshiomole’s leadership.

    Akeredolu said he found the report laughable and distracting, adding that as a fiercely independent personality, he was not about to change his attitude to please any person or a group of persons.

    “There is no truth in the whole contrivance. The governor has been pre-occupied with matters of governance in Ondo State for which he was elected,” the statement said.

    Read Also: No development without unity, says Akeredolu

    Akeredolu recalled his “noble interventions” as Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) President at critical moments in the cause of the progressives, including in restoring Oshiomole’s stolen mandate.

    The statement said: “The Governor had expressed preference for someone else during the contest for the office of the Chairman of the Party.

    “He did not hide his opposition to Mr Oshiomole’s aspiration for the simple reason that the leadership of a party, especially the one just emerging from a merger, should distance itself from egregious and inherently destructive narcissism.

    “Recent events seem to justify this position as prescient. Only sycophants will fail to see the obvious. Mr President would not have expressed worries over the crises in the Party if everything had gone on smoothly.

    “The handlers of the mob strive in vain to set the President against certain government functionaries considered antagonistic to their pernicious scheme for dominance.

    “Their devious plot to outsmart those perceived as opposing their expansionist tendency compelled them to take desperate measures. Anyone endowed with an attitude of sobriety should have seen the need for calm.

    “Rather than retrace their steps and display genuine contrition, their desperation pushes them to embrace measures capable of not only hurting the Party, but, regrettably, the President, whom they pretend to love so much.”

    Akeredolu said it was ludicrous that anyone would consider him a conservative.

    “Those who collected varying and humongous amounts as fees from aspirants during the last grandiose charade called primaries and submitted names dictated to them by a cabal, notorious for capturing political power for unbridled pillage, should be bold to explain their real motives to the people. They should be honest enough to deal with the issues.

    “Events, which took place across the country during the political charade, have exposed not only sheer incompetence on the part of the national leadership of the party, but painfully, it has revealed a shocking proclivity towards banditry and impunity.

    “It is becoming clear, increasingly, that party leadership at that level is seriously challenged in terms of capacity for serious engagements.

    “Arakunrin Akeredolu, SAN, does not need to move from ‘North’ to ‘South’ to collect signatures from victims of electoral heist. He was in Ondo State throughout last week.

    “He was at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, to deliver a lecture on restructuring a few days ago. He is at presently in Canada on a working visit.

    “Only the mob and their hirers can explain the imagined movement from North to South. However, those who feel aggrieved reserve the right to demand that justice be done. If this includes the removal of Mr Oshiomole, so be it.

    “May we seize this opportunity to reiterate the fact that the people of Ondo State are favourably disposed to the second term bid of Mr President.

    “Our people are unique; they are unwavering in their support for justice. They alone determine what is in their best interest at all times. The President is loved by the people of Ondo State.

    “All of us shall work, assiduously, for the President’s victory at the polls next year. We do not need any band of mendicants ready for hire to remind us of this sacred patriotic duty,” the statement added.

  • Oshiomhole questions competence of suit seeking his probe for graft

    Court schedules hearing for Nov 19

    National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has queried the competence of a suit seeking his probe by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for corruption related conduct.

    Oshiomhole, who also questioned the plaintiff’s right under the law, to seek to compel the EFCC to probe his tenure as Governor of Edo State, urged the court to dismiss the suit for being incompetent.

    The plaintiff, Bishop Osadolor Ochei said he, on October 28, 2016 petitioned the EFCC, demanding that Oshiomhole be  investigated on some allegations he (Ochei) has made against the ex-Governor.

    The said his suit, filed before the Federal High Court, Abuja and marked: FHC/ABJ/CS/ was as a result of the EFCC’s alleged failure to act on his petition.

    Plaintiff’s  lawyer, West Idahosa said the court that there were documents and electronic pictures of palatial houses credited to the former governor, whose earnings throughout his lifetime, according to the plaintiff, could not have been able to afford.

    Idahosa said, among other allegations, there was evidence that the ex-Governor allegedly diverted Edo State’s funds.

    He claimed that there are also vouchers of exorbitant air fares that the former governor allegedly incurred.

    Oshiomhole, in a notice of preliminary objection filed by his lawyer, Damien Dodo (SAN), argued that the plaintiff lacked the locus stand to bring the suit.

    In the objection, supported by 10 grounds, Oshiomhole argued that the suit has become a mere academic exercise since the plaintiff failed to file the suit for judicial review within three months of the occurrence of the subject of the case.

    He argued that the action or inaction of the EFCC being subjected to review by the proceedings occurred on December 13, 2016, while the plaintiff only institute the action for judicial review on June 13, 2018.

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    He noted that this came about 18 months after the occurrence of the alleged failure being complained about.

    Oshiomhole contended that the plaintiff’s right of action has become unenforceable, because Ochei has been unable to state that he has the legal right to file and maintain the suit for judicial review, “having not shown how the actions of the second respondent/applicant affected him over and above other residents and indegenes of Edo State.”

    He further argued that the court lacked the jurisdiction to entertain the suit for failure of the plaintiff to commence the action within the time provided by extant rules of the court and for failure to disclose locus standi to file the action.

    The judge, Justice Anwuli Chikere, had on October 8, 2018, granted leave to the plaintiff to commence the suit for “judicial review”.
    Justice Chikere granted the leave upon an ex parte motion to that effect filed by the plaintiff and ordered that Oshiomhole and the EFCC be served with all the processes filed in the suit.

    The EFCC was not represented by any lawyer when the case came up on Tuesday.

    Idahosa told the court that the commission was duly served as ordered by the court, following which the judge adjourned to November 19 for hearing