Obasanjo still looking to actualize third term agenda, says Oshiomhole

Chairman of the All Progressive Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, Friday described former President Olusegun Obasanjo as an insatiable politician who is still looking to actualize his pet dream of becoming Nigeria’s President for the third term.

This is just as he declared that the party will go ahead with the planned congresses in Imo State despite claims of Court injunction to stop the congresses, saying that he was yet to be served.

“It is going on, I know for a fact that I was served with a court paper which nullified the congresses that were done under my predecessor. On the basis of the court judgement which nullified the election, we were obliged to now go back and re-conduct which is what we are doing today.

“If anybody purports that there is a new court order, it has not been served on me. You will agree with me that however unfairly you look at me, however small Iam, I have a postal address, a contact address, a residential address, so it is not possible to have a court order and it is not serve on me.

“And I do not belong to the category of persons that will run away from service. If there is a court order, as a governing party, we are obliged to live by example. So, the truth is that there is no court order.

“There is no stay of execution. A stay of execution is not something that is secret. If anybody has one, he should show it to us”

Oshiomhole who stated this while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, also denied that there is a looming mass defection from the APC.

Asked about his plans to check the looming mass defection from the APC, Oshiomhole said” l think it is something you should ask the PDP. They are the ones who have suffered huge, huge mass defection even of the so called founding fathers.”

“ I mean, in those good old days, people like Professor Jerry Gana will tell us, we are the founding fathers. People like President Obasanjo will tell us, you know I was the first President. All of these people are gone. I think the media need to get more engage and scrutinise us, those of us who are political players.

He noted that “there is no better proof than that old man who is going round as an organising secretary recruiting people, looking for tired players to continue with a third term agenda which Nigerians have rejected.

“When we speak from both sides of the mouth or we are turning the story upside down. Just few months back, you know that a good section after their convention, people like Oyederan, Professor Jerry Gana and a host of others who can be said to founding fathers of that party, they left to form what they call SDP or ADC or both.

He however said Nigeria has rejected them adding that they are not going to return to the era where central bank , NNPC and security money is shared to people based on PDP philosophy of ‘share the money’. We won’t do that, if they have forgotten. It is quite easy for robbers to forget easily the robbery they just did but it is not easy for the victim of the rubbery to forget.
Speaking on the APC victory in the just concluded Ekiti Governorship election, Oshiomhole said the people of Ekiti state having recalled the good days of Fayemi, comparing them to the level they were reduced to in the present government, voted wisely for change and for Fayemi to complete his unfinished business.

He described Ekiti victory as a good outing for the APC and a sign of good things to come adding that “ Ekiti recovered, arising from the lost ground and the poor governance that was provided by the current PDP government in the state.

He boasted that the party will also win the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Osun state.
“ we are even much more confident because there, we have a governor who is at home with his people, he a mobiliser, an organiser and an astute politician.

He disclosed that the party has decided that in order to give people a more sense of ownership in the electoral process, to use direct primaries, which means that every card carrying member of the APC is going to participate in choosing who should fly the flag of the party.

“Now, this method gives more and more people a sense of ownership and a sense of commitment to the candidate that they have all chosen. It returns the party to the grass root so that new sense of renewed ownership, renewed sense of participation and inclusion by itself, is a value that would make the actual election even much easier.”
The APC Chairman expressed confident that the people of Osun state will vote for the party, adding that “the candidate that will emerge will be the candidate chosen by the party members and not the party oligarchy.”

Tony Ailemen, Abuja

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