Atiku teams up with Tinubu, says ‘Oyegun you erred’

Former Vice President and a national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Atiku Abubakar, has asked Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, the party national Chairman to retrace his steps.

Atiku stated this on Wednesday while reacting to the call by the national leader of the party, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu that Odigie-Oyegun step down as the APC national Chairman.

In a statement he issued through his Media office in Abuja, Atiku argued that it was inappropriate for the leadership of the party to discard its own rules while the game is on, adding that APC must promote the rule of law and due process in the conduct of its affairs because ‘’they are germane to the unity and stability of the party”.

According to him, “it is imperative for the national leadership of the party to live by the rules of internal democracy and respect for democratic consensus. You cannot break your own rules without creating problems.”

While he asked Odigie-Oyegun to urgently retrace his steps in order to build confidence among aggrieved members, Abubakar pleaded with angry members of the APC in the Ondo election to exercise restraint in seeking redress to the crisis.

Read also: Crack in APC leadership blows open, as Tinubu calls for Oyegun’s sack

He said, “Since the APC found veritable reasons to review the outcome of the gubernatorial primary election it conducted in Ondo State, and was able to establish valid grounds to cancel that election and call for a fresh one, the decision to deviate from its own resolution is a negation of due process and an unfashionable hollow in democratic best practices.

“It was wrong for the APC to have set aside a resolution it had reached aimed at resolving the crisis in our party in Ondo State. It is a recipe for acrimony and division”, Atiku said.

He called on the leadership of the party to do an urgent soul-searching in order to address the issues and advised against glossing over such a problem, which according to him could only make worse the situation.

Tinubu had last week called for the resignation of Odigie-Oyegun following the party’s decision to abandon the majority report of its Appeal Committee on the primary election in Ondo state which suggested a cancellation of the exercise that produced Mr Rotimi Akeredolu.

Tinubu’s supported aspirant, Segun Abraham, came second in the election that threw up this crisis.

By Ebere Ndukwu …

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