The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, says the party’s National Chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, lacks moral right to talk about the defection of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Frank, in a statement issued yesterday in reaction to Chief Odigie-Oyegun’s assertion that the former Vice President’s exit wouldn’t cause any massive defection from the party, claimed that “his incompetency contributed to the former vice president leaving the party.”
The APC chieftain said the APC national chairman should have remained sober because he was one of the biggest beneficiaries from Atiku in the APC.
He said, “One should have expected our national chairman to focus on how to rebuild the APC now instead of concentrating his energy on Atiku Abubakar who is no more with us.
“I hope Chief Odigie-Oyegun will learn from the history of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the PDP when some of us were leaving the party. The party later paid the price and if care is not taken, the APC too will pay the price of Oyegun’s incompetency in 2019.
“Our national chairman ought to know that politics is a game of numbers. So, we expect him to take responsibility for everyone, leaving the ruling party to opposition party under his watch.”
Frank added, “If Oyegun thinks that Atiku’s exit won’t create any impact, time will tell. But I will still advise the party to relieve Chief Oyegun of his office before he angers more people to leave the APC.
“Atiku actually left the APC because of such national chairman who could not ensure internal democracy. Under Chief Oyegun, aspirants alleged that primary elections were won by higher bidders, party constitution suspended, display of impunity were the order of the day, inability to put BoT in place, lack of capacity to organise convention and other necessary meetings. So, Nigerians will expect our chairman to tell the world the value he has added to the ruling party?
“This is a national chairman who has never won election for the APC even in his ward, how can he challenge a former vice president of Nigeria who has added values to democracy and even to the ruling party before he left.”
He implored the APC leaders to go back to the drawing board and see how the party could be rebranded before 2019 general elections.
Frank said that the party had gone into more deeper crisis which it had not been able to resolve across the country under the current national chairman.
