‘This rebellion will be crushed’ — Oshiomhole goes tough on R-APC

Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), says he believes the “rebellion” within the ruling party will be crushed.

On Wednesday, aggrieved members in the APC floated a new faction — the Reformed APC (R-APC) — accusing the ruling party of betraying their hopes.

But speaking when he received former state chairpersons of the Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) in Abuja, Oshiomhole said the party listened to R-APC members before they left the party.

“(But) it is as if a very hungry bird is dancing at the centre of the road and a disgruntled drummer not far away in the bush is drumming for him,” he said.

“I am very confident that we can afford to ignore Buba Galadima … for me, there is no cause for alarm, nobody should panic over one Baba Galadima, whose group, I believe, cannot define us in the next election in 2019.

“Nigerians are wiser, they know that corruption is fighting back, they also know that President Buhari’s resolve to fight corruption must elicit a counter force and that force must find attraction in some people.

“But like we have rightly said, we should not be distracted and we encourage the president not to be distracted, he must remain focused and sustain the fight and I believe the rebellion will be crushed using the superior power of argument, persuading our people not to forget in a hurry where we are coming from.”

He added that the APC is not ashamed to talk to people who have “genuine” grievances but “when we see people who don’t mean well, there are a lot of idle people who don’t have any other thing to do and once they don’t have access to national honey pot, then they begin to complain.”

The former CPC state chairpersons expresses their loyalty to the APC under Oshiomhole and distanced themselves from the R-APC.

Oshiomhole had earlier said he would not lose sleep over the R-APC.

Bolaji Abdullahi, APC spokesman, has denied the existence of any faction within the party.