How APC Governors Clashed, Tackled Each Other At Party Meeting

President Muhammadu Buhari with APC Governors
EXCLUSIVE: How APC governors clashed, tackled each other at party
meeting
Heated arguments broke out among All Progressives Congress’
governors during a strategy meeting at the party’s national
secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES has learnt.
The governors held the meeting to discuss the party’s upcoming
national convention and election of new party executives.
Party insiders told PREMIUM TIMES that the politicians also discussed
the lingering controversies over the major candidates for the
chairmanship position.
The seat is being hotly contested by the incumbent John Odigie-
Oyegun and Adams Oshiomhole, a former governor of Edo State.
Our sources said halfway into the meeting, which held behind closed-
doors late afternoon, serious confrontation erupted amongst the
governors, first over the upcoming congresses.
PREMIUM TIMES learnt the party is planning to send officials to
monitor congresses from outside their home states. Typically, state
governors are allowed to send names of party members that they
want to serve as officials during the congresses to the national
headquarters.
The party’s convention committee is planning a modality that would
randomise the posting of thevnominated congress officials, PREMIUM
TIMES learnt. This would mean that congress officials nominated from
Gombe State could end up officiating in Kogi State or another state
further south.
Akeredolu takes on Okorocha
But this arrangement appears unacceptable to some governors,
especially Rochas Okorocha of Imo State, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.
Mr Okorocha said officials must not be posted out of their states. He
threatened to act decisively should the officials he nominated be
posted out of his state.
But Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State interjected, and called
Mr Okorocha’s bluff. He said Mr Okorcha cannot do anything because
he is not above the party and whatever decision the party ultimately
takes would be biding on all its members. He challenged the Imo
governor from threatening violence on the party and its members.
Other governors present eventually intervened and calmed frayed
nerves.
Ajimobi, El-Rufai clash over Oshiomhole
As the meeting progressed, Mr Okorocha again sparked controversy
when he said President Muhammadu Buhari had endorsed Mr
Oshiomhole as the next chairman of the party.
Mr Okorocha said the president made the statement when they held a
meeting with him earlier in the day.
But Governor Nasir El-Rufai who was amongst the governors who
visited the president said Mr Okorocha’s claim was not true, our
sources said.
Mr El-Rufai said the governors and the President would give all
candidates equal support in the course of their campaigns.
But that was immediately countered by Governor Abiola Ajimobi of
Oyo State who accused his Kaduna counterpart of double-dealing.
Before that meeting at the APC secretariat, Mr. El-Rufai was believed
to be one of Mr. Odigie-Oyegun’s major backers. In fact the APC
chairman believed the Kaduna governor was pushing his case
vigorously with the President.
But Mr Ajimobi pointedly declared at the meeting that he and Mr El-
Rufai met at the residence of Mr Oshiomhole on Tuesday night and
wondered why the Kaduna governor continued to pretend that his
loyalty remained solely with Mr. Odigie-Oyegun.
Mr Ajimobi said Mr El-Rufai pledged loyalty to Mr Oshiomhole and
assured him of victory at the convention. Messrs Oshiomhole and
Odigie-Oyegun are from Edo State.
Based on the party’s internal arrangement for its upcoming
convention which said all slots must remain as they are, the chairman
would have to emerge from Edo State.
While Mr Oshiomhole’s has covered huge ground in his quest for the
chairmanship of the party, there are indications that some governors
are still opposed to him because of his alleged connection to Bola
Tinubu, an immensely influential figure in the party.
Mr Oshiomhole is widely seen as a candidate of Mr Tinubu. But
governors like Mr Akeredolu who have political axe to grind with the
former Lagos governor are heading for a showdown with him at the
convention, our sources said.
Bolaji Abdullahi, a spokesperson for the APC did not return PREMIUM
TIMES’s requests for comments Thursday night.
Protecting party’s image
One other issue that was a subject of intense bickering amongst the
governors was on how to properly time their party’s upcoming
activities in a way that would not portray the leadership as
insensitive to the plight of Nigerians, PREMIUM TIMES learnt.