Nigerians have punished Saraki, 15 others for being disloyal to APC – Oshiomhole

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has said Nigerians have punished the 16 senators that dumped the party ahead of 2019 general elections.

Former Senate president, Bukola Saraki, along with the other aggrieved senators defected to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and other political parties ahead of the election.

Oshiomhole, who spoke with State House correspondents on Monday when he led a delegation to present Bayelsa State governor-elect, David Lyon, to President Muhammadu Buhari, said all those senators have been punished by Nigerians except Dino Melaye, who according to him is still struggling.

He said: “All the 16 senators who decamped along with Senator Bukola Saraki from APC to PDP, hard as they have tried to come back, the Nigerian people in their respective constituencies have insisted on punishing them for being disloyal.

“I think the only one who is still struggling now is Dino Melaye, but as you can see from the result so far, Senator Smart Adeyemi is leading by over 20,000 votes.

READ ALSO: LAI MOHAMMED TO JOURNALISTS: Lead campaign against hate speech

“Even though INEC insists we must have a rerun for the remaining areas, we are confident that there is no way he can make up for 20,000 vote deficits.

“I think the lesson for us to be learnt as a party is rather clear, that when politicians go to the polls to collect mandate on a particular political platform and then they dump the party for another party, the electorate will always be waiting for them.”

Join the conversation

Opinions

Support Ripples Nigeria, hold up solutions journalism

Balanced, fearless journalism driven by data comes at huge financial costs.

As a media platform, we hold leadership accountable and will not trade the right to press freedom and free speech for a piece of cake.

If you like what we do, and are ready to uphold solutions journalism, kindly donate to the Ripples Nigeria cause.

Your support would help to ensure that citizens and institutions continue to have free access to credible and reliable information for societal development.

Donate Now