Fresh crisis has hit the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), as one of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) members, Timi Frank has called for the immediate resignation of the party’s national chairman, Chief John Odigie Oyegun.
Frank, who accused Oyegun and some members of the APC’s NWC of fueling the ongoing rancor in the party, said it was unfortunate that the leadership of the party played hide and seek and over indulged themselves in the choice of Senate President and House Speaker.
Addressing newsmen in Abuja on Sunday, Frank who doubles as assistant national publicity secretary, stated that the chairman and leadership of the party ought to resign for throwing the party into internal crisis with the conduct of an embarrassing mock election.
“If my party could not keep to the promise of change, then we must correct them to keep to that. I have no fear or favour than to say that the current leadership of the party has practically failed. With this incident alone, the chairman should resign from his position after taking a position against the people and the people’s position has finally come to stay. In the Western world, by today the party’s national chairman would have resigned honourably.
“Not just the national chairman but the entire leadership that took this decision of conducting mock election against the outcry of the larger members of the party. Against the bigger picture of Nigerians. A hand-full of the party leadership came to take a decision, and by today the people have shown that the voice of the people is the voice of God,” Timi Frank stated.
He specifically faulted the APC chairman, Oyegun for clearly failing to consult widely before embarking on the mock election, which he said ridiculed the party.
He said, “You could see the way the party including the national chairman was speaking before the NASS leadership elections; it showed clearly that the chairman had totally taken sides which wasn’t meant to be. I understand, he took some of those decisions based on pressure. In this century, APC as a party, does not need a chairman that will be under pressure.
“And the party’s national chairman caused it because times out of numbers, some of the leaders told him to come up with a zoning formula from the beginning. He was asked to take a decision and let people follow that but he didn’t do that. They were playing hide and seek with the issue until the last minute when they saw the danger, and they wanted to play hanky-panky, which led us to lose one position at the Senate,” Frank said.
“Let’s go back and ask Lai Mohammed who the leader of the party is. If he does not recognise the President as the leader. In my own view, If Lai Mohammed that is my direct boss could come up to tell Nigerians that the President is only a product of the party and not the national leader of the party, then he should have been able to tell us who the leader of the party is.
“We have seen that even in then PDP, former President Goodluck Jonathan was the leader of the party. If in our own case the President cannot be the leader of the party, he should tell us who the leader is then,” Frank averred.
He described what transpired at the national Assembly as good for democracy, noting that Nigeria stood to be the overall beneficiary.
“Those that are calling for the deputy senate president to resign are anti-people, and I will campaign against it. I will continue to support Burkola Saraki and Ike Ekweremadu and every progressive Nigerian should support this mission as it will take Nigeria to the next phase because failure to do this will disrupt democracy, ” the deputy national publicity secretary stated.
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