…as gang-up against him increases
#His detractors are kidding, says APC group
By Samuel Alonge
There are indications that should some governors and top politicians described as “Buharists” within the APC administration get their acts right, the party’s national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, looks good to get sacked in a few weeks to come.
Primed for the same sack is the National Vice-Chairman (South) of the party, Otunba Niyi Adebayo, a former governor of Ekiti State.
Among the several allegations leveled against them, sources in the party told sharpedgenews.com, are that Oshiomole and Adebayo had turned the party to “a coven” being solely controlled by the national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
The source explained that party decisions were no longer taken at the meetings of the National Working Committee, NWC, which should be the highest decision-taking organ of the party.
“Instead, Oshiomhole, looking unusually stern and with Adebayo beaming with smiles beside him, would just announce decisions, saying that ‘the respected opinion leaders of the party’ had concluded upon so, so things, and that was it,” said a top party source, who craved anonymity.
The source further alleged that Oshiomhole had been scared stiff in holding the NWC meeting in the recent time and had instead taken to running between President Buhari and Asiwaju Tinubu, to intervene between him and his traducers.
It was also gathered that apart from the other NWC members that are distraught and are bent on removing Oshiomhole, there are collaborators from some governors who include Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State, Yahaya Bello of Kogi, and Nasiru el-Rufai of Kaduna. However, the Ekiti State governor, who is the chairman of the Governors Forum, is said to have opted for neutrality, in view of the fact that he holds Adebayo, said to be his political godfather in Ekiti, in high esteem.
To worsen things for Oshiomhole, his current squabble with his immediate successor in Edo State, who is also his political godson-Governor Godwin Obaseki, does not help matters, it was learnt. Obaseki has reportedly got an ally in the immediate past national chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, who is said to be rallying others to show Oshiomhole the exit door.
Meanwhile, the national president of Change Agent Foundation International, CAFI, Mr. Dipo Okeyomi, has accused both Bello and Akeredolu of being
the two major arrowheads that want Oshiomhole removed as the APC chairman.
The CAFI is a pressure group in the APC and an offshoot of the Mandate Group in Lagos, which worked for the failure of former Governor Akinwumi Ambode in his initial effort to seek a second term. The Mandate Group which has now transmuted to CAFI, is said to be fully backed by the duo of APC National Leader, Asiwaju Tinubu, and immediate past governor of Osun State, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola.
Said Okeyomi, of Bello and Akeredolu: “The two governors are the people mobilising fellow governors and some rebellious members of the APC NWC to see that Oshiomhole is removed. But the truth is that, they will fail, and at the end of the day, they will not get the ticket of our great party to run for another term in office.”
But denying the alleged involvement of Governor Bello in the attempt to remove Oshiomhole, the Director General, Media and Publicity for Yahaya Bello Campaign Organisation, Mr. Kingsley Fanwo, said, “The governor is not in any way quarrelling with the national chairman of our party. He does not believe there is the need to replace the national chairman now.”
Speaking in the same vein, the APC chairman in Ondo Stat, Mr. Ade Adetimehin, said, “Governor Akeredolu has nothing against our National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, much less plot to remove him.”