Call for NEC meeting or resign -- APC govs tell Oshiomhole

The governors elected on the platform of the All Progressives Governors Forum have asked the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, to convene a National Executive Council meeting or resign.

The governors said the inability of the chairman to call for superior organs of the party to a meeting was causing increasing organisational challenges in the party.

The governors made the call through the Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Salihu Lukman, in a statement made available on Wednesday in Abuja.

The PGF is an umbrella body of governors of the APC.

The statement said, “In the current circumstance, nothing short of a NEC or National Caucus meeting of the party can resolve all our increasing organisational challenges as a party.

“It is either Oshiomhole respect the provision of the party constitution and convene superior organ meeting to deliberate on all our challenges, or he should just accept his inability to manage the party and simply resign.”

The statement challenged the national leaders to rise to the challenge facing the party and take all necessary measures to convene superior organ meetings to begin to resolve all challenges as a party, saying “the current public disgrace must end!”

Lukman said the call was heightened by the information coming from Edo State indicating that members of the State Executive Council of APC had passed a vote of no confidence on Oshiomhole.

“In so many respects, it could be argued, it is a natural outcome of unfolding power play between Oshiomhole and Governor Godwin Obaseki since June 2019 with the contentious inauguration of the Edo State House of Assembly. Possible retaliatory responses from both Comrade Oshiomhole and groups such as Edo Peoples Movement who are loyal to Oshiomhole should be expected. In other words, the could be counter pronouncement suspending Governor Obaseki.

“Side by side with the news of the vote of no confidence was also the discomforting report of the Federal High Court judgement in Abuja disqualifying Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo as our Deputy Governorship candidate for the November 16, 2019, Bayelsa election. While expecting that every necessary step will be taken to vacate the judgement, it is very depressing for every committed party member to be subjected to such ignominious reality, which only reminds us of our reckless conducts in states like Zamfara, Rivers, Bauchi and Adamawa, which chiefly gave away electoral victories to the PDP.

“Instead of focusing on working to win elections, we are busy undermining ourselves. All these are ominous signs that we are about to re-enact the Zamfara, Rivers, Bauchi and Adamawa experiences in Bayelsa. It is Bayelsa today, Anambra, Edo, and Ondo are being setup for similar experiences. Somehow, unfortunately, the NEC of the party, which is the organ vested with the statutory responsibility of responding to all these challenges appears to be suspended.

“The last time it met was August 2018. In its place, the National Working Committee, which is an administrative organ with the responsibility of implementing decisions of NEC and other higher organs seems to have usurped the powers of NEC.”