The Imo
State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, on Thursday alleged that the fortune of the
ruling All Progressives Congress has reduced drastically since the inception of
the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.
He claimed
that the party had lost about five million voters due to Oshiomhole’s
highhandedness.
Okorocha,
who is also the Chairman of the Progressives Governors Forum, made the
allegation in an interview with State House correspondents shortly after a
meeting he had with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa,
Abuja.
The
governor, who is one of those calling for Oshiomhole’s removal based on the way
the recent party primaries were handled, said he had since discovered that the
party chairman acted without the backing of the President.
He said his
investigation had shown that there was no directive from the President for the
party chairman to act illegally as witnessed in some states.
Okorocha
said he had also discovered that Oshiomhole was not under any instruction to
replace candidates who won primary elections with others who did not win.
He urged the
party chairman to learn to respect the rule of law and obey court orders where
they apply.
“This issue
of treating court orders as tissue papers must stop. It doesn’t reflect the
image of our party.
“Oshiomhole
must act quickly to fix the integrity of this party because his coming in ought
to have brought joy into the party and not sadness,” Okorocha said.
Despite his
allegation against the party chairman, however, the governor said the party
would not disintegrate as long as the President remains the leader of the
party.
The governor
said Oshiomhole should be called to order.
He added,
“APC will not disintegrate for as long as the person, Muhammadu Buhari is still
the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and remains the leader of
this party.
“We cannot
give that credit to the chairman. He cannot disintegrate this party, the party
is still intact, just that many people are hurt.
“Since his
inception and after these primaries, we are losing almost five million voters
because of anger, protest everywhere and he needs to be called to order.
“He has to
respect the rule of law, respect court orders and do the right thing – obey
court orders where applicable and not turn himself into INEC.”
Okorocha
said it was not possible for the party to replace his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu,
with Senator Hope Uzodinma as the party’s governorship candidate in the state.
“He cannot
be standing on Hope Uzodinma because that man did not win election. You cannot
compare somebody who won 265,000 votes with somebody who won 7,000 votes.
“He (Hope
Uzodinma) never won election and you cannot impose a candidate who is
unacceptable to the people on the people. That is how serious the matter is
now.
“So, he
(Oshiomhole) should do the right thing and I have advised him many times to do
the right thing before he creates more disaffections in our party,” he said.
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