APC crisis deepens: Don’t break the rules, Atiku warns Oyegun

Urges soul-searching among excos 

By Bode Olagoke
Abuja,

National Chairman of the crisis-ridden All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has come under further heat as a chieftain of the party and former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, carpeted him for being ‘unfair and unjust’ in his handling of the issues arising from the party’s governorship primaries in Ondo state.
His accusation is coming few days after a national leader of the party, Asiwaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, moved against Oyegun and called for his sack over alleged plan to ruin the governing party.
Before now, Tinubu’s move received the support of party chieftains, including APC Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Timi Frank and an aspirant in the primaries, Wole Oke, both of whom, lambasted the embattled chairman.
Adding his voice yesterday, former Vice President Abubakar, decried Oyegun’s decision to jettison the recommendation of the state’s appeal panel, an action that ‘favoured’ Chief Rotimi Akeredolu, the party’s candidate.
According to him, “the party’s leadership should always be guided by respect for the rules, fairness, equity, neutrality and respect for democratic consensus.”

In a statement issued in Abuja by the Atiku Media Office, the former VP said, it was imperative for the national leadership of the party to live by the rules of internal democracy and respect for democratic consensus, warning that “you cannot break your own rules without creating problems.”
He said since the APC found veritable reasons to review the outcome of the gubernatorial primary election it conducted in Ondo state, and was able to establish valid grounds to cancel that election and call for a fresh one, the “decision to deviate from its own resolution is a
negation of due process and an unfashionable hollow in democratic best practices.”

“It was wrong for the APC to have set aside a resolution it had reached, aimed at resolving the crisis in our party in Ondo state. It is a recipe for acrimony and division,” he said in the statement.
“Pretending a problem doesn’t exist won’t make that problem go away,” the party chieftain noted, and advised the leadership to do “soul-searching” and address “why this problem arose and escalated.”
He charged the party to promote the rule of law and due process in the conduct of its affairs, noting that they were germane to the unity and stability of the party.
The former VP, however, urged the aggrieved party members in the state to exercise restraint in seeking redress, even as he called on the leadership of the party to retrace its steps “and do the needful to restore confidence among the conflicting parties in the state for the overall benefit of the ruling party.”