Says ‘’no to Okorocha political dynasty’’
…’’Amosun acts like medieval king’’
…Insists on fielding candidate in Zamfara
The
insistence of Imo State governor, Chief Rochas Okorocha and his Ogun
State counterpart on fielding their choice candidates as governorship
flagbearers in their respective states despite the position of the All
Progressives Party, APC, finally met a brick wall yesterday with the
party’s refusal to recognise their candidates.
Specifically, the
party’s decision practically dealt a mortal blow to the scheming and
horse-trading over the determination of the governors to ensure that
their candidates were given the tickets to contest governorship
elections in Imo and Ogun states.
At the same time, the APC
dismissed the decision of the Independent Electoral Commission, INEC,
barring it from having a governorship candidate in Zamfara State over
the failure to meet the deadline for the submission of candidates’
names.
The party said the stance of the electoral umpire was an
act of disenfranchisement, aimed at awarding the governorship position
in the state to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.
These
positions which seemed like the highpoints of the fallout of the party’s
governorship primaries across the country were taken yesterday in
Abuja.
Addressing newsmen to that effect, APC National Chairman,
Comrade Adams Oshiomhole said the party would not bend its rules for the
personal interest of some party members.
Oshiomhole, who spoke
on the contentious outcomes of its primaries in Imo, Ogun, Rivers and
Zamfara states, said the APC would abide by a Supreme Court judgment on
Rivers State.
He added that measures would be put in place for fresh congresses across the state.
The
APC National Chairman specifically said Okorocha and Amosun were bent
on fielding their choice aspirants at the expense of the party’s
constitution.
The duo had recently accused Oshiomhole of being responsible for the crisis in the party.
RIVERS: We will abide by Supreme Court order
His
words: “On the judgment given by the Supreme Court, as a political
party, we respect the judiciary. We also appreciate that democracy is
basically about the rule of law and not the rule of might. Based on this
fact, which is not a choice, we are obliged to respect the rule of law
and at the heart of that is total obedience to the letters and the
spirit of judicial findings which are not meant to be convenient. In a
democracy, there are orders that need to be obeyed.
Therefore,
the judgment of the Supreme Court is very clear that the court has
nullified the ward congresses that were done by my predecessor in Rivers
State and also nullified the state and local government congresses that
were done in the state. What is important is that as things stand, the
highest court in the land has pronounced that those congresses did not
meet the requirements of the law and are therefore not valid. As a
law-abiding party, we accept the decision of the court and we will call a
meeting in no distant future of all the stakeholders in Rivers State to
put the necessary machinery in place to conduct fresh ward, local
government, and state congresses.
OGUN: Amosun behaving like an emperor
“In
the APC Constitution, the only body authorised to conduct primaries is
the NWC of which I am privileged to be the chairman but there are
processes that must be followed before this exercise is made a
possibility. Our National Executive Committee NEC met and decided to
invoke the relevant parts of our constitution which among other things
allow us to conduct either direct or indirect primaries in which every
card-carrying member of our party is entitled to vote.
“In the
case of Ogun state, Governor Ibikunle Amosun like any other governor
convened a meeting of the State Executive Committee SEC as directed by
NEC and those meetings were meant to include not just the SEC members
but critical stakeholders for the purpose of primaries. There can be no
question that anyone who is standing for an election is obviously a
stakeholder in the process particularly when the matter on the agenda is
how to conduct the primaries. And in order to ensure transparency in
the process, the NEC also resolved that when a state opted for any of
the options, the state executive is obliged to ensure that majority of
the members sign the resolution and not just one or two on behalf of the
others.
Substantial compliance
“Amosun convened a
meeting that substantially met the requirements as resolved by the NEC. I
talk about substantial compliance because there were people who were
supposed to be invited to that meeting but were not invited. These
include former senators, former governors or deputy governors. At the
meeting, Amosun in his wisdom decided to introduce a third element
which did not feature in the resolution of the NEC.
He announced
that Ogun State was going to adopt consensus and he proceeded to define
what in his view constitutes a consensus. Having defined it to mean the
pronouncement of the governor, he went on to announce a consensus
candidate, one Akinlade as the next governor. He proceeded to announce
another gentleman as the running mate.
He went on to proclaim himself
as the next senator and also said the current senator in his own zone,
Sen Lanre Tejuosho, would step aside so that he, Amosun, at the end of
his tenure would proceed to the Senate. He announced also that another
senator from Ogun State would step aside and another gentleman would
come in his place. Not done, Amosun went on to announce a particular
gentleman as the next Speaker and another one as Deputy Speaker of the
State House of Assembly.
Amosun also unilaterally pronounced that
of the eight seating House of Representatives members, seven were not
going to return. He went on to list the names of the House of Assembly
members who would seek re-election and those who would not seek
re-election, announcing a total of 40 names. When he was done in a
manner that an emperor would do to his subjects in a feudal society, the
people of Ogun state at that meeting rejected the imposition.
Amosun
did not recognise that democracy is a game of numbers, not a game of
power. He went on angrily to announce that if they did not accept the
imposition, he was going to do direct primaries which the people agreed.
Upon this decision, the SEC wrote to the NWC copying the office of the
chairman to inform me
