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Tag: Oshiomhole

  • Nigerians voted in favour of integrity, says Oshiomhole

    National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has said that Saturday election was a referendum between a man of integrity and a man without integrity, saying Nigerians loudly voted in favour of integrity.

    Oshiomhole also asked President Muhammadu Buhari to order security agents to fish out all those involved, or those who sponsored killing of innocent Nigerians who came out to vote in last Saturday elections.

    Read Also: Buhari thanks Tinubu, Oshiomhole, other Nigerians for victory

    Addressing a news conference at the party Secretariat in Abuja, Oshiomhole said the PDP Presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar who signed a peace accord going into the election knowing that only person will emerge winner of the election, but prefer to stand truth on its head by adducing reasons while he think the elections were rigged.

    Going into memory lane as to the records of votes scored by the PDP in previous election, he said the APC scored less than in the 2019 election than it did in 2015, describing Atiku as a poor student of statistical data.

    Details shortly…

  • Oshiomhole, Obaseki meet APC leaders in Edo

    Less than 48 hours to the rescheduled Presidential and National Assembly elections slated for February 23, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Thursday met with leaders of the APC from the 18 local government councils in the state.

    Speaking to journalists after the closed-door meeting at Government House in Benin City, Governor Obaseki said his administration has recorded huge successes within a short time owing to support from President Buhari.

    He said: “Edo is an APC state and there is no doubt about it. President Buhari led-administration has been supportive to us. He has granted all our requests. He has also assured to do more for us.”

    Read Also: Obaseki orders payment of February salary to Edo workers

    The governor expressed confidence that the state would deliver one million votes for the re-election of President Buhari.

    Oshiomhole assured that the party would not allow thuggery and ballot box snatching during conduct of the elections on Saturday, February 23, across the country.

    He noted: “We had a special meeting today. We met as APC family to reaffirm our commitment in ensuring we do what is expected of us as leaders to mobilise Edo people to vote en masse for President Muhammadu Buhari and other APC candidates in the election.

    “In Edo, we are used to one man, one vote. So, we will not allow thuggery and ballot box snatching,” he said.

    According to Oshiomhole, President Buhari has demonstrated that he is a trusted and honest leader, who deserves re-election to complete his developmental agenda across the country.

    He said: “We have resolved to give Buhari a second term and based on the track records of the APC governments in Edo State, I believe President Buhari will win.“

  • Atiku confirmed PDP is working with INEC, says Oshiomhole

    TO All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar has vindicated the ruling party’s claim that the opposition was working with some officials of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to compromise the Presidential and National Assembly elections.

    Oshiomhole, who addressed reporters last night, said it had become clearer that the only mission of the PDP candidate “is to cause confusion in the electoral system so that he will become President even it means presiding over graves”.

    According to him, only those who want to deploy thugs to undermine the elections will oppose and find fault with the statement of the President aimed at discouraging thuggery during the election.

    Oshiomhole said the attention of the international community at the moment is that elections across the world should be violent-free and assured that the forthcoming elections will be conducted in a free and fair atmosphere.

    He said: “It is only those who believe in thuggery that will find fault with the President’s directive. Is there anyone that would want to vote for thuggery? Is there any thug that is not armed? You cannot snatch ballot box without the aid of firearms. So, when the international community is talking about violence-free election, they are saying the election should be free of thuggery.

    “You can see that the PDP is not at home with that because they imported thuggery, institutionalised it and have always fallen back on it as instrument of rigging and to dominate the electorates. So, we debunk any attempt by Atiku to change the essence of the President’s statement.

    “I believe the President spoke the kind of the average Nigerian who wants to go and vote and come home in peace without fear of being attacked. You know that thuggery is synonymous with violence and the world is unanimous that violence should be removed from election.

    Atiku’s rejection exposes PDP for what they are. Their plan is to deploy thugs so that the election will be impossible or reduce voter turnout.

    “To say that the APC imported card reader is laughable and that the card readers have been deployed to the Southsouth and Southeast. The implication of this is, assuming it is true without conceding, it means that Atiku is working hand in hand with the ICT unit in INEC to know the kind of machines that are deployed to where.

    “Recognising that INEC is Independent, we are not able to know the kind of card readers INEC is deploying or where they were imported from. But if Atiku has all of these details, it can only mean that he is working hand in hand with people within INEC to know where machines are imported from and the fact that card readers can be programmed otherwise.

    “We are not like a stammers who look for a fight because they cannot win an argument. We believe that the electorates are ready to vote for us and we want those votes to take place in a free and fair atmosphere.

    “I think that Nigerians should be united when it comes to the issue of a free and fair election. Our candidate is saddled with the responsibility for peace and security of Nigerians. He has the duty to ensure that the live of the Nigerian electorate is protected as well as those of the observers. That is the responsibility of the Commander-in-Chief.”

    Read also: EFCC detains Atiku’s man over $4m cash haul

    “So, if Atiku finds fault in this, if anybody is pro thuggery, we are against thuggery and we are against violence. The International community should properly decode Atiku’s statement sling the president to withdraw his threat not against the electorates, but against would be thugs or merchants of violence.

    “As far as I am concern, Atiku knows that he can’t win. In 2003 elections, he lost his base in Adamawa. He is on record to have procured a senatorial seat for Prof. Jibrin Aminu. If he wants to go to court, I will meet him there and I will produce the first INEC documented report that announced the winners of those senatorial seats.”

    The APC chair predicted that the PDP candidate will lose in his Adamawa home state.

    “We are ready for the elections and by the grace of God, Nigerians will vote for us and Atiku will remain a permanent presidential candidate which Nigerians never had,” Oshiomhole said.

    Reacting to the reports credited to Atiku and the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, Oshiomhole said: “This afternoon, we monitored the statement by the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the PDP national chairman, Uche Secondus in which they tried to distort the message which of the President who reassured Nigerians that he has given appropriate directive to security agents to ensure that Saturday election is free and fair.

    “From the response of the PDP candidate, it is clear that they have already conceded defeat. First, he claimed that he has two stronghold which he identified as Southsouth and Southeast. That is not true because I come from the Southsouth and we are not voting Atiku. We have since dismantled the PDP machine in Edo state and Edo is the heart beat of the Nation.

    “Even If you take the statement in its face value, if Atiku concedes that out of six geopolitical zones, he has support not in his own zone, but Southsouth and Southeast, the voting population in these two zones are not enough to deliver the presidency to any candidate in Nigeria.”

    According to him, every peace-loving Nigerian and those who wish Nigeria are yearning for fair and violent-free elections.

    He said: “What the President said and we are proud that he has courage to say it that he has asked security agents to create an enabling environment for Nigerians to out and vote without fear that thugs will attack them and that security agents are going to put thugs in check. No peace loving Nigerian can find fault with that,” Oshiomhole said.

    Recalling how thugs were used to rig elections when Atiku held the forte as vice president, the APC chair said: “I think it does expose PDP for what they are. Atiku as vice president to Obasanjo was there in 2003 when people were killed by thugs. In my election in 2007, three young men were shut down by PDP thugs at Oba Primary school. So, no responsible candidate will find fault with any pronouncement that tends to discourage thuggery in the coming elections.

    “For a man who is aspiring to preside over Nigeria to seek protection for thuggery is uncalled for. He has already said he will grant amnesty to looters. I don’t think Nigerians have any basis to doubt that Atiku’s mission is to set Nigeria on fire so that he can become President, even If he will preside over a graveyard.”

  • Opposition is jittery, says Oshiomhole

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Comrade Adams Oshiomhole spoke with reporters in Lokoja, Kogi State capital on preparations for next Saturday’s presidential election.

    Do you think President Buhari has fulfilled his promises to Nigerians to seek for a second term?

    The PDP ruled for 16 years without fixing our problems and now you are saying that President Buhari would have fixed Nigeria in three and half years. President Muhammadu Buhari has fulfilled most of his promises to Nigerians and you cannot tell me that he would have fixed the country in three and half years. We are on the road to sustainable growth and development. Our local industries are very very firm now and that is the root of the development of any country and massive investment in infrastructure which I believe President Buhari has been doing. Addressing the infrastructural issues, reviving the rail way system, dealing with the issue of power even with the way and manner that the PDP privatized the Discos, giving them to those who neither has the capacity to run them nor the resources to invest. But this is not to suggest that everything is fine. If we think that we have completed our mission we won’t bother ourselves.

    But do you think that those things that you have done will earn your party victory at the polls?

    Let me tell you, what Nigerians have always wanted is an honest leader. You can accuse Buhari of anything but you cannot say that Buhari is corrupt. Even the worst foreign leader has acknowledged that Buhari is a man of honour and integrity, no President before him commanded that kind of respect, not even Obasanjo. And when the British Prime Minister had the guts to say, Nigeria is fantastically corrupt, our President said but you are the custodian of the corrupt money, return the money to me. How many Presidents can look at the British Prime Ministers face and say that to her, but he did. So I am not suggesting that those who are going to vote for us think that the problems are solved, they see honest intensions by the President and he is pursuing honest solutions.

    People are saying that your party will not win South East and South South, they will not win in the North Central and they will balkanize the votes the President has always had in other parts of the North. And they are saying your party cannot win in the free and fair election?

    The campaigns have started. You can actually go round and find out what people think. And the things about choice, is that no man is good and no man is bad. But when you compare one man with another, no man will compare President Buhari to Atiku, those who know Atiku and what he stands for. And this reminds me the point we need to make about foreign interest in our election, we begin to see foreign countries go beyond their bounds, more or less interfering. Right now Americans are talking about the Russian interference in American election. It is a subject of investigation as we speak. So no country will tolerate interference. But that you provide a system to monitor and ensure that you assist countries to strengthen democracy, all of that is fine. But don’t get to a level of interference.

    When you hear Atiku saying, I will privatize NNPC, even if they will kill him, I don’t know why he had to add that one. Who will kill him? I am not sure how many Nigerians have money to buy NNPC, he is speaking to his Western audience. When he says he will float the naira, you know whose values he is piloting. Those are IMF agenda, float the naira. So in Atiku’s world floating naira means one thousand naira to one dollar so be it. You think he does not know what he is saying. Of course there are countries if they have their way they want Nigeria to be perpetually under developed.

    But do you think President Buhari will earn votes like he earned in 2015?

    Of course he will earn more votes, you know why? Somehow, there are things I really don’t want to talk about. PDP tried to give the impression at a point, if you review some reports in the past, including some stories in the print media, there was an attempt to link President Buhari to Boko Haram. That they brought him just to make Nigeria ungovernable for Jonathan. But they change the narrative now since he became President. There is nothing they have not said. Today, the man from the South East who has seen Buhari building the River Niger, it is no longer rhetoric, he did not have to change his name to Azikiwe, but he is building River Niger. He is restoring the dual carriage way between Onitsha and Enugu. He is building one connecting to Port Harcourt, there are a number of roads in the South East that he is doing. So those ordinary traders who ply those roads, they are going to vote for Buhari. Last time they did not vote for him. Look at the outing we had in Enugu, we can see the difference between the campaign we had in 2015 in Enugu and now. We were in Akwa Ibom, you must have seen the pictures, that is the South South where they call the safe haven of the PDP, it is no longer going to be so.

    But some will say that crowd at rallies may not be the true reflection of votes?

    What are the true reflection of votes? Social media? Let me tell you, most times the crowd reflect the true picture of acceptance of that person. Go and organize a rally and say you want to be President and see. I have ran elections, I was a governor twice, so I understand the language of the electorate. I can read the body language of the electorate, I know where we are strong and where we are weak.  So if you were to go to Kebbi as I have done, and stay with ordinary farmers who are experiencing new posterity because unlike PDP government, this President said we must eat what we produce. Atiku says he is going to renew importation, he will remove the ban on 42 items so that we can go back to begin to import tooth pick, import plantain, import Amala. He is going to export our jobs and import unemployment to the country. Because there is no miracle about job creation. What this government is doing by insisting that you prohibit the importation of rice, requires huge political will. PDP producing Atiku is the best thing that has happened to this election. The day PDP selected him, we were happy. First because he cannot plead innocence. Atiku has been in government and he was a party to many decisions, he superintended over the privatization of many enterprises, he was involved in many pronouncements. He was one Vice President who was so ambitious. So his face is well known.

    is bigger than Saraki.

  • Appeal Court upholds Abdulrazaq governorship candidature

    . Sets aside State High judgment

    The Court of Appeals sitting in Ilorin, the Kwara state capital on Tuesday upheld the nomination of the state All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate Abdulrahman AbdulRazaq.

    The court set aside an earlier ruling by the state High Court.

    A Kwara state High Court had last year ruled that the dissolved Ishola Balogun-Fulani executive is the authentic exco, thus nullifying any candidate produced by the Bashir Bolarinwa executives.

    The court also held that state high court lack powers to entertain any suit against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    In a unanimous judgement on the interlocutory appeals filed by the APC, Justice Hamma Akawu Barka, who read the ruling, said the originating summons by the Balogun-Fulani’s faction was not sealed by the registry and that robs the court of jurisdiction.

    He upheld all the four grounds of appeal filed by the APC and set aside the ruling of the Kwara State High Court which was given on Oct 24th, last year.

    Read Also: Supreme Court rejects PDP’s appeal on Ogun crisis

    It added that the case of the Ishola Balogun-Fulani was defective in all ramifications.

    The court said the nomination of AbdulRazaq by the APC National Working Committee was in order.

    It said a state executive committee of a party is just a branch of its national headquarters and so has no power or right to conduct any primaries to the offices of the president, governor, National Assembly or State Assembly positions.

    By the ruling, the dissolution of the Ishola Balogun-led APC Executive in Kwara State by the Comrade Adams Oshiomhole led National Executive Committee now stands.

  • Oshiomhole warns APC chairmen, secretaries against complacency

    All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole yesterday warned state chairmen, secretaries and governorship candidates of the party against complacency in the coming elections.

    He said the party must win in a free and fair manner.

    Oshiomhole spoke at a crucial meeting with state critical stakeholders ahead of the presidential election scheduled for the weekend.

    The meeting, which started at about 8.30pm also have in attendance, party’s governorship candidates with the exemption of siting governors who are seeking re-election.

    The Nation gathered that the state chairmen, secretaries and governorship candidates were briefed on preparation for the elections and what is expected them.

    The chairmen and the candidates reportedly briefed the NWC on their preparation for the election and the challenges.

    Senatorial candidates who were supposed to be part of the meeting were later excluded.

    A statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa Onilu was silent on the details of what they discussed.

    Oshiomhole said the meeting became imperative to review and deliberate on the party’s preparation and general issues ahead of the forthcoming general elections.

    Isa-Onilu said in the statement: “Oshiomhole stated the party’s national leadership identified the state executives represented at the meeting by their respective chairmen and secretaries as an important grassroots base that will work and ensure the party’s victory in the presidential, governorship, National and State Houses of Assembly elections.

    “The National Chairman who hailed the huge turnout of party supporters in the presidential campaign rallies held so far, charged the state executives to work cordially with APC governors and stakeholders in their respective states to ensure the election of all APC candidates.”

  • PDP supervised obituaries of industries — Oshiomhole

    The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Adams Oshiomole, on Saturday urged Nigerians not to believe the promise of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to create massive jobs.

    Oshiomhole gave the advice in Lagos while addressing the crowd at the party’s presidential campaign rally.

    He said the promise was a calculated ploy by the opposition party to deceive Nigerians and get their votes.

    The party chairman said the PDP had no good record of job creation in all its 16years in power.

    He said that the era of PDP marked the death of many industries in the country, especially in Lagos.

    Oshiomhole said that it was a big irony that the PDP candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who supervised the economy at the time as Vice-President when many factories died was promising jobs.

    The party chairman said the opposition party was clueless about job creation.

    According to him, the APC had created many jobs in the last three years and would create more when re-elected.

    “When you go to Oshodi and Isolo, remember the industries in Oshodi and Ikeja? Where are they now?

    “Who supervised the obituaries of these industries? It is the PDP, and who was the Vice-President at that time, Atiku.

    “How can you supervise the liquidation of industries and make promise to create new jobs?

    “Jobs are not created by miracles; by investing in infrastructure, the present government has generated many jobs through construction and multiplier effects.

    “The Next level means more jobs are coming for the people” he said.

    Oshiomhole said that the PDP Vice-Presidential candidate, Mr Peter Obi, did not have the moral authority to speak on jobs.

    He alleged that Obi deals in Made-in -China goods, exporting jobs, saying that was the reason he always quoted figures from China at any gathering.

    Oshiomole said the country did not fare well under the 16years of PDP, which he described as an era characterised by looting and poor leadership.

    He said the Buhari administration had done well to put the country on the right course in the last three and half years.

    Oshiomhole said Buhari was a man of integrity, adding the anti-corruption fight and love for the masses had improved under him.

    “President Buhari is a man of integrity. He is the only president that no British Prime Minister has called a thief.

    “He is the only president that is widely acknowledged to be fighting corruption.

    “This is the only president that the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in London has described as an African leader who stands out to be counted on the side of the people.

    “That is why I am proud and you are proud to be associated with what Buhari is doing and what he stands for, and why the Next level is about you,” he said.

    He said the difference between the APC and PDP was that while the former was about the people the latter was about themselves.

    Oshiomhole said while APC was spending N500billion on the poor, the PDP was complaining the money was too much, as they were used to looting.

    He said the promise by Atiku to give amnesty to treasury looters while leaving petty thieves who steal N10 or N20 should tell anyone that PDP was about class.

    The party chairman said the APC was sure of victory on Feb. 16 and March 2, as it would defeat the PDP “mercilessly”.

    He assured the international community that the party would not be involved in rigging or violence,as it had no record of doing that.

    Oshiomhole said the APC had no reason to rig, as people believed in the party for progress.

    He said Lagos was an example of a working state, which was so because it was under APC.

    The Director-General of the Buhari Campaign Organisation and Minister of Transportation, Mr Rotimi Amaechi, said a vote for APC was a vote for infrastructure.

    He said the delivery of Lagos -Abeokuta rail project and others in the country by the APC meant the party was for development.

    The APC governorship candidate in the state, Mr Babajide Sanwoolu, urged residents to vote right and for the APC.

    He urged residents to come out en masse and vote for the party for the progress of the state.

    The APC chairman in the state, Alhaji Tunde Balogun, praised the administration of Buhari, saying the state had benefited immensely in terms of projects in the last three and half years.

    NAN reports that APC state governors, ministers, among others were part of the mammoth crowd of party faithful and residents at the rally. (NAN)

  • PDP allegations threat to success of polls – Oshiomhole

    National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has said the series of unsubstantiated allegations and misleading comments by the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP) against the ruling APC constitute a major threat to the success of the 2019.

    Speaking when a delegation of the ECOWAS Election Monitoring Team, led by former President of Liberia, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf visited him, Oshiomhole said it was unfortunate that the PDP were not prepared to abide by the rules, but are instead engaged in actions capable rubbing the name of the nation and that of the Independent National Electoral Commission, in the mud.

    Oshiomhole said the APC is working towards ensuring a free and fair election by ensuring that its members comport themselves as true democrats, avoiding hate speeches and sensitization of the electorate to work against rigging.

    He said “As the National Chairman of the APC, we are committed to a peaceful election, but unfortunately, the opposition’s language and utterances does not suggest that they want a free and fair election. I believe, because they knew they have lost the elections, seeing the kind of support our candidate, President Muhammadu Buhari has been enjoying so far, as we have seen in our campaigns, the opposition are now in the habit of waking up and making unsubstantiated allegations just to deceive members of the International community.

    “Unfortunately, you see some foreign missions believing their lies and issuing statements in support of the PDP. And, that is why some of us are worried that some persons are hiding under the guise of Election Observers to come and discredit our electoral process and also interfere in our elections and our judicial process.

    “We observed that on the issue of the Chief Justice of Nigeria. This is a judicial officer who agreed that he erred when he did not declare some of his assets. And we have a situation whereby huge amount of foreign currencies were found in different accounts. And the PDP became the mouth piece of the CJN and they created a wrong impression before the International Community, and we saw joint statements condemning the action of the President, who was acting on the recommendation made by the Code of Conduct Bureau.

    “Are you saying that if a crime is conducted on election day, and because it was an election day, the person concerned should not face the law? The President of America today is being investigated over allegation of alleged Russian interference in America election. So, I think all these unsubstantiated allegations are not good for the forthcoming general elections and that is why we believe that the PDP, knowing fully well that they will be rejected by the people at the polls, are trying to create crisis where there is none.”

    Leader of the group, Mrs. Helen Johnson Sirleaf, said the entire world is interested in ensuring a peaceful election in Nigeria, “because Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, and anything that happens to Nigerian will not only affect the entire Africa, but the world. So, we are appealing to all the parties to preach peace and urge their supporters to pick their PVCs, so that nobody will be disenfranchised.”

    Also, in a separate statement signed by the National Publicity Secretary, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the party said the act of intimidating and blackmailing the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other state institutions will not stop their impending defeat.

    The APC frown at what it described failed the attempt to demonise the APC, President Muhammadu Buhari administration and deploying intimidation and blackmail tactics against the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and other state institutions ahead of the general election.

    Onilu said the PDP’s line of attack cannot affect President Buhari’s emphatic victory in the February 16 election, saying “We have watched how panicky leaders of the PDP have become, having realised that they are heading for a crushing and humiliating defeat in the forthcoming general election.

    “In their confused and pitiable state, they have unconscionably hurled pedestrian allegations of partisanship and partiality against INEC and other state institutions.

    “The PDP leaders’ strategy is to regularly call out INEC and allege partiality towards the APC, thereby creating doubts in the minds of Nigerians and international community about the independence and credibility of the electoral body.

    “This is one of the odious antics of a desperate party that wants to hijack presidential power, not on the strength of having a credible alternative, but on the strength of selfish propaganda with which they mask their real motivation for seeking a return to power — plundering of the public treasury.

    Read Also: Why Atiku should sue Obasanjo, by Oshiomhole

    “We call on Nigerians to judge between the APC and the PDP, who can be said to have been favoured by INEC when one considers how the electoral body had initially barred the APC from fielding candidates in Zamfara and Rivers States in the forthcoming elections.

    “Less than two weeks to elections, our party is still in courts to seek justice from INEC to enable us field candidates. Notwithstanding our protests, calling INEC’s attention to the fact that the PDP didn’t conduct any primaries in Kano State, the electoral body has opted to look the other way even in the face of glaring evidence.

    “It is clear that the PDP is only interested in getting to power on a stolen mandate. It was not surprising that the PDP celebrated INEC’s initial decisions on Zamafara and Rivers because the PDP knows they stand no chance against the APC candidates in a free and fair election.”

    The APC also expressed shock over PDP’s allegation that the distribution of Permanent Voters Cards (PVC) is being hampered by INEC to disenfranchise supposed PDP supporters, saying “how could anyone have known the political party affiliations of those who are yet to collect their PVCs such that the process of disenfranchising them was activated by INEC to favour the APC.

    “The PDP and its leaders cannot hold the APC responsible for their electoral misfortunes. PDP administration’s antecedents of treasury looting, mismanagement of the economy and widespread insecurity have put a big wedge between them and the Nigerian people.

    “There is no doubt that the PDP will be roundly rejected at the forthcoming general election. On our part, we are confident that Nigerians will renew our mandate on the basis of our verifiable and multi-sector record of performance under the leadership of President Buhari.”

  • Why Atiku should sue Obasanjo, by Oshiomhole

    IF the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, has his ways, former vice president Atiku Abubakar will sue his erstwhile boss President Olusegun Obasanjo for defamation of character.

    Oshiomhole said it was not enough for the former president to recant on the scathing remarks he had made about the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential candidate at fora and in written documents.

    Speaking yesterday at the APC presidential campaign at the Sani Abacha Stadium in Kano, urged Atiku to sue Obasanjo, who had at various times, querying his credibility, for libel.

    Oshiomhole insisted that until Atiku was able to redeem his image through a law court, he will remain unfit to seek the support of Nigerians to be president.

    He said: “If Obasanjo says that Atiku is corrupt, but  because of his hatred against President Buhari, he is ready to forgive Atiku, does that cleanse Atiku from corruption? No!

    “The only way Atiku can clean his name is to go to court. If Atiku did not sue Obasanjo for libel, that means everything that was said about him was correct. And if it is correct, then, he is not the right candidate to rule Nigeria.”

    “Again, Mr. President, you said you are going to lift 50,000 persons from poverty and you are doing it but they say you are slow, but when Atiku promised to empower seven million people, they have already thrown 14 million people out of their jobs.

    “All the textile companies in Sharada and Bompai in Kano, Gaskiya Textile is dead, all the factories in these areas, who killed them? It is PDP, Obasanjo as vice president. How can he now say he is going to give our jobs when presided over Industrial obituaries in Kano, Lagos and every other place in Nigeria.”

  • Oshiomhole lashes out at Obasanjo for ceding Bakassi

    NATIONAL Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole yesterday lashed out at former President Olusegun Obasanjo for ceding Bakassi to Cameroon.

    He spoke at the UJ Esuene Stadium, Calabar, the Cross River State capital, after handing over the governorship flag to Senator John Owan-Enoh.

    According to the party chair, the country will never forgive the past president for handing over Bakassi because he allegedly wanted a Nobel Peace Prize.

    According to him, such prize was not for traitors or opportunists, but for those who have worked hard for the development of humanity.

    “The only thing I want to remind the people of Cross River is that never ever can you afford to forget a Nigerian leader, in the person of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who ceded part of Cross River State to Cameroon, because he was pursuing a Nobel Peace Prize.

    “He (Obasanjo) handed over Nigerian territory to a foreign country and induced Nigerians to become refugees. Obasanjo has ceded our community to Cameroon. We can never forgive him. Nigeria will never forgive him.

    “There is no statesman in the modern world that would voluntarily cede part of his territory to a foreign country. That crime committed by Olusegun Oabsanjo, if we are too weak to punish him, history will punish him because no leader gives away his household and sell them to slavery. If it is something that can be revised, the president has enough courage to do everything that your predecessor said was not possible.

    “Those who preside over the award of Nobel Peace Prize, they do not give it to traitors. They give it to people who have worked hard to add to various spheres of human endeavor. It is not for traitors, opportunists and certainly not for those who bastardize their fatherland. This is the only message I have on today’s occasion.”

    Acting State Chairman of the APC in the state, Sir John Ochala, said the state was fed up with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration in the state, which he alleged has destroyed the development of state.

    Expressing confidence that the APC will win the state in the next elections, the party chairman called on the President to call the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Pastor Usani Usani, also laying claim to the governorship ticket of the party, to order.

    Ochala said the number of the teeming supporters at the rally showed the acceptance of the APC in the state, outstanding development of infrastructure in the state by the Federal Government cannot go unnoticed.

    “Unfortunately we cannot say this of Cross River State because it is not well led. There is a near lack of governance in the state. Cross River State has degenerated.

    “Once acclaimed as the cleanest in the state it is no longer so. Investors have been chased out because of irrational and multiple tax regime of the government. Pensioners are hungry and dying due to non-payment of their pension arrears and gratuity.

    “The bail out given to the state by your government has been bailed to unknown quarters. Local government system is near collapse due to failure to conduct local government election and failure to pay salary arrears.

    “These, among others, are the reasons there is a growing sense of disenchantment by the people, who are clamouring for a change. The Super Highway project commissioned by you is one of the phantom projects of this administration.

    “There are other phony projects. Governance in Cross River has been reduced to a joke. We have a corrupt and clueless government. Indeed Cross River is in a state of political and economic emergency. The good news is that APC has come out with the very best in the person of John Owan-Enoh. Better days are ahead with John Owan-Enoh.

    “Mr President, I would like to draw your attention to a major distraction to an otherwise easy victory for us at the polls. This distraction is caused by your cabinet member. We call on you to use your good office to call him to order.”

    National Vice Chairman, Southsouth of the APC, Ntufam Hilliard Eta, said the people of the state were grateful to the President for being gracious towards them and would express their appreciation at the polls.

    Senator Owan-Enoh thanked the President for the visit.

    “We thank president for the rally and let me say that Cross River people and APC would not forget this day. On February 16, the president would win in Cross River. On the second of March, we would elect an APC administration for Cross River. The broom revolution that started in 2015 is berthing in Cross River in 2019.”