Suspended National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has spoken on the leadership tussle in the party.
In an online TV interview on Saturday, Oshiomhole accused the former deputy national secretary Victor Giadom of attempting to destroy the party the way his group destroyed APC in Rivers.
He said Giadom was no longer a member of the National Working Committee NWC of the party, a report quoted him as saying.
He said, even if it was assumed, he was a member, it would not be possible for a deputy National Secretary to superintend over the affairs of the party in the presence of other high ranking officials.
Oshiomhole’s reference to Rivers state was seen as a subtle attack against the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi whose battle of supremacy with Sen. Magnus Abe led to the court disqualifying the APC from participating in the 2019 general elections.
Giadom is a known political protege of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi.
Oshiomhole said: “My advice to my brother (Giadom) is about common sense. In the absence of the Chairman, there is nothing in our rules, and the courts can only interpret the rules of the party and the Constitution of Nigeria.
“I mean it serves to common sense that if the Chairman is absent, it should be the deputy. In the absence of the deputy, it is the vice chairman. How does the deputy secretary come in?
“As we speak, we have a Secretary sitting in the office working late hours to ensure that the secretariat functions.
“I think that my brother, Victor Giadom wants to take our party to the root of Rivers state where they created so much problems that, as we speak today, in Rivers, we have crisis.
“My plea to them is that they should put God first and put our national party interest second and our democracy deep in their hearts and not try to use externalities to destabilise our party the way it has been destabilised in Rivers state.
“How can a deputy National Secretary, assuming he was still one, claim to be chairman?”, he said.
Throwing more light on Giadom’s status in the party, the national legal adviser, Babatunde Ogala faulted an alleged waiver granted Giadom to return to the NWC, after resigning to vie for an office in the last general elections.
He also dismissed reports of crisis in the APC saying what is happening is just the handiwork of rascals.
Ogala said; “There is nothing strange going on in the APC. The Press call crisis, I call it brigandage and rascality of one or two members of the 20-man NWC.
“Of course we have also heard about Giadom’s court order. We have never been served any order of court, that somebody, one of you, the lowest ranking NWC member has purportedly been asked to resume as acting National Chairman.
“We find it ridiculous because he has never served this process on us. We only saw it in the social media. So, as far as we are concerned, the party is running according to the provisions of our constitution notwithstanding the act of rascality of one member.
“On waiver, going by the provisions of our constitution, to obtain a waiver is a process. You apply through your Ward, the LG, the State, the Zonal and to the NWC.
“So, it is a process in five steps. The National Chairman cannot give him a waiver without the Ward.
“But anyway, let us even assume he went through the process, the Supreme Court in Ibrahim Umar’s case had even said the erstwhile executive in Rivers State was illegally constituted and whatever action they had taken was null and void which was what led to the nullification of all APC candidates in Rivers state.
“So, if it is that same executive that made us not to have candidates, can that executive give him a waiver?
“Certainly not. So, it is null and void even if he got it. But to my knowledge, he never got any”.
