The Rivers State wing of the All Progressives Congress (APC), President Muhammadu Buhari’s ruling party has rejected the former Oyo State Governor, Senator Abiola Ajimobi as the Acting National Chairman of the troubled party.
The party has instead thrown its weight behind Victor Giadom to replace the ousted former National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, on an acting capacity.
Giadom, an Ogoni, is a political associate of Transportation Minister, Chibuike Amaechi. He was Amaechi’s Works Commissioner when the minister dominated the affairs of Rivers State as governor.
An Appeal Court on Tuesday upheld the suspension of Oshiomole, as the national chair of APC.
In a statement wired to this reporter on Thursday, a frontline chief of the APC in Rivers, Eze Chukwuemeka Eze, says they are recognizing Giadom as Ag. National Chairman in line with the decision of an FCT High Court delivered on March 16, 2020.
Eze described the judgment as a good recipe for peace in the ruling party which has been enmeshed in a litany of internal hostilities and abatable tinderboxes orchestrated by the self-styled leadership and administrative incompetence of Oshiomhole.
By the court’s verdict, he said all appointees of Adams, masquerading as elected officers of the APC are to go with the former chairman as Giadom legally and physically takes charge of the party & its secretariat.
He dismissed insinuations that Ajimobi is armed with statutory powers to administer the party as the next highest-ranking officer from the South-South, stressing that all those appointed and all actions were taken by the suspended Oshiomhole are products of illegality and a total nullity and therefore cannot stand the heat of the judgement.
He said Giadom, as the next highest-ranking member of the NWC from the South-South Zone, in compliance with the court’s ruling assumes duties as Acting National Chairman of All Progressives Congress.
“Any other person parading himself as Acting National Chairman is doing so at his peril and should be regarded as an agent of destabilisation”, Eze said.
He commended the Court for its sound judgment which ousted Oshiomhole both as chairman and as a member of ruling APC, lamenting that the former Edo State governor appropriated more powers to himself than the Constitution provides.
As a result, ‘’he navigated the party into a seeming unending imbroglio which culminated to the disenfranchisement of party faithful and electoral loss in, Zamfara, Bauchi, Adamawa, Bayelsa and Rivers and other key states and constituencies across the country.’’
Eze expresses sadness that Oshiomhole messed the opportunity given him to become a statesman and only succeeded in making a mockery of himself by exposing his very many leadership deficiencies without remorse, and commended the Edo wing of the party for exposing Oshiomhole as an undemocratic, divisive character not worthy of leading a great party like the ruling All Progressives Congress.
While appealing to stakeholders to rally round Giadom to reposition the party, he said South-South leaders will not for any reason succumb or tolerate anybody scheming to take over the office zoned to the region for any reason whatsoever.
Congratulating Giadom for his new office, he urged him to consult widely to achieve the target of rebuilding the party brick by brick, while praying for God’s guidance and direction as he opens a new chapter for the APC.
