Real reasons Oyegun withdrew from APC chairmanship race
The National
Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John
Odigie-Oyegun, shelved his ambition to run for the position again after a meeting with President Muhammadu
Buhari on Thursday night.
Sources said
the APC governors had already informed the Chief Odigie-Oyegun-led National
Working Committee (NWC) on the plan of President Buhari to support the national
chairmanship ambition of a former governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole, at a meeting held at the party secretariat last Wednesday.
But Chief
Odigie-Oyegun’s silence on the message brought by the governors from the
president was not enough to convince them that he had given up the ambition of
remaining at the helms of affairs of the party beyond the 2019 general
elections.
“What
happened at the Wednesday meeting was that the governors conveyed information
on their meeting with the president,” one of the sources said.
“They told
Oyegun that the president will be supporting Oshiomhole for the chairmanship
position but there was no response from the chairman at that meeting,” he said.
Another
source said that was when it became evident that President Buhari had to
intervene; more so there were open altercations among key party stakeholders on
the national chairmanship position, especially after the APC state and zonal
meetings held in Edo State.
Penultimate
Sunday, the Edo caucus of the APC led by the State chairman of the party,
Barrister Anselm Ojezua, had backed Oshiomhole to vie for the position of
national chairman at a meeting in Benin.
However, his
subsequent endorsement by the South South zonal chapter of the APC polarised
the party as four out of the six state chairmen of the party from the zone
rejected him.
The state
chairmen that rejected him were Chief Davies Ikanya (Rivers), Deacon Joseph
Fafi (Bayelsa), Mr Etim John (Cross River) and Dr Amadu Attai (Akwa Ibom), as
well as the APC Deputy National Secretary, Hon. Victor Giadom.
Subsequently,
Oyegun also described the purported endorsement of Oshiomhole by the
South-South zonal leadership of the party as “absolutely childish.”
Before his
final decision, Oyegun had the support of some APC governors, especially those
who believed that they could only control the party structures in their state
if he remained as national chairman.
Oshiomhole’s
candidacy was hitherto rejected by the governors who thought that the support
he enjoyed from the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu,
might not be good for their various political interests.
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