Tinubu, Atiku in closed-door meeting

Senator Ahmed Bola Tinubu, acclaimed leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, on Wednesday met behind closed-doors in Lagos. Both had been guests at an event organized by the Chartered Institute of Insurance Brokers which held at the Civic Centre, Victoria Island.

Though details of their interactions were not made public, Ripples Nigeria gathered that both senior citizens shared views on the myriad of challenges threatening to tear the ruling party apart.

On Monday, Tinubu stirred the polity by issuing a strongly-worded statement calling for the resignation of John Odigie-Oyegun, National Chairman of the ruling party.

Expressing angst over Oyegun’s decision to ignore the position of the National Working Committee (NWC) on the troubled Ondo gubernatorial primaries, Tinubu fumed as follows, “he has broken faith with the party and probably has broken a few laws. The consequences of what he has done are more expansive than a man of his scope can fathom.

There is a powerful and sinister arm at work to compel a man of Oyegun’s age to steal the decision of the party in a manner so crude that it would embarrass even the commonest thief.”’

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

On Wednesday, Tinubu found support in Atiku who declared thus, “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.

“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’s reaction is seen by observers as a game changer that may determine the direction the party is headed in the
days ahead. This is more so as Oyegun has declined to join issues with Tinubu until after Edo gubernatorial poll where, sadly, emerging reports say that he lost the election in his unit.

There are strong speculations that he has tabled the matter of the call for his sack before President Muhammadu Buhari who has chosen to keep mum at present.

The Southwest, largely under the control of Bola Tinubu, is seen as a battle ground for political gladiators who might want to retain federal control or cause a shift in political power to another region come 2019.

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