Alhassan’s loyalty to APC was in doubt —Oshiomhole

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole has thrown more light on why the party disqualified the Minister of Women Affairs, Aisha Al-Hassan from participating in Sunday’s governorship primary of the party.

According to Oshiomhole, who spoke at a press briefing on Friday, the party took the decision to protect its core values, because it was unsure of her.

Oshiomhole further stated that the party’s governorship screening committee was not convinced and stopped her from contesting on the platform of APC because the party was not convinced about her loyalty.

Oshiomhole said: “As for the Honourable Minister of Women Affairs, she has issues that have to do with party loyalty. Our constitution is clear and it dictates that to contest elections or even hold office in the APC, you must be loyal to the party in every material concern.

Read also: ‘Democracy is now dead in our beloved country’— Fayose

“From all she had said in the past and even her comments and general attitude during the screening, the NWC reviewed everything taken together and we arrived at the conclusion that she does not possess the level of loyalty that the APC requires for her to contest elections on our platform.

“We made it clear when the defections happened that the APC may well benefit from these defections if it helps us to be more critical in terms of whom we give platform to contest elections and that there are core values that binds the APC together and they are non-negotiable.

“The Electoral Act and the APC constitution forbid anyone from being a member of more than one political party at a time. You cannot be a member of APC and be a card carrying member of another party, but when you have a situation where it would appear, based on what you know and based on what I know that someone is probably APC in the day time maybe for the purpose of retaining certain offices and they are PDP at heart.”

 

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