A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Blessing Agbomhere, says former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, and the party’s zonal chairman Victor Giadom campaigned for the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar.
This is even as he insisted that Victor Giadom, until recently, the Zonal Chairman of the party will no longer act in that capacity after a vote of no confidence was passed on him and the ex-zonal secretary, Ita Udosen.
Agbomhere has now taken over as the Acting Zonal Chairman of the party.
Giadom was removed on Sunday after five zonal officers of the party, at a special meeting in Port Harcourt, moved against Giadom and Udosen, citing their running of the zone like a personal fiefdom, failure to call for meetings, among others, as reasons for their removal.
Reacting to the development however, the leadership of the party in a statement issued by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, dismissed the action of Agbomhere and four others, saying they lacked the constitutional authority to sack zonal officers of the party.
Addressing a handful of print journalists in Abuja, Agbomhere faulted the statement credited to Morka, noting that Amechi and Giadom, who in the build-up to the election doubted the chances of Tinubu and the APC, ought to have been disciplined for frustrating the efforts of a party that have given them opportunities to serve in the past.
He said, “The ex-zonal chairman (Giadom) never mobilised for our party, the APC in the general election. He never supported our candidate. Before the election, Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima took out time to come to them knowing that Rotimi Amechi contested the primary election and failed and that Giadom is his lieutenant, they were begged to join hands with party members to ensure that they were voted for. Amechi and Giadom did not work for the party. They came out publicly, called meetings in the South-South, and urged people to vote against the APC and vote for Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. We consider this a great disservice to our party because the APC has done everything for Amechi.
He specifically condemned the comment made by the ex-Transportation Minister when during the election, he claimed that the Independent National Electoral Commission chairman was appointed by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), following a recommendation by a member of Tinubu’s camp.
“Do you know what such statements can cause the party? By that statement, he was ready to incite Nigerians against the candidacy and election of Bola Tinubu,” he added.
Justifying the decision to sack Giadom, Agbomhere added, “The zonal officers of the South-South had their extraordinary meeting, and, in that meeting, we are eight officers in the zone, all of us were present. The constitution requires that we call for a zonal meeting at least once every quarter and for almost six months now, he (Giadom) has not called for a meeting. He has been running the party alone and doing whatever he likes with the party. Every attempt to make the secretary call for a meeting also failed. He and the secretary are running the party together, without carrying the other six executive members of the zone along.
“Even after the elections were over, there have been a series of petitions and suspensions from across the states in the region. The zone is supposed to set up a committee that would receive these petitions, do fact-finding to find out what is wrong and find a way to resolve these issues in the zone but Giadom allowed the zone to be enveloped in internal disputations because he does not care.
He also accused Giadom of abandoning his duties as the chairman of the zone and also not supporting Tinubu’s campaign.
As the National Working Committee of the party meets on Wednesday, Agbomhere said a letter notifying the leadership of the party would be transmitted informing it of development in the zone. When that is done, the NWC being “A higher committee than the one that took that decision, is to set up a fact-finding committee. After their findings, they can then make a pronouncement of either supporting our position or otherwise.”
Speaking on Tinubu’s readiness for governance, Agbomhere said, “despite the fact that I cannot guarantee that Asiwaju can run 100km in an hour, I can confirm that Asiwaju and Shettima have 100 ideas to rescue Nigeria and set her on the path of greatness within the first 100 days in office. This is why we keep supporting him. We are ready to fight anybody bent on frustrating democracy in Nigeria. This is the first time in Nigeria that we will be having a pure democrat coming to occupy the office of the president in Nigeria. Asiwaju is not in the league of Rotimi Amaechi and Victor Giadom; he is in the league of Obafemi Awolowo and Lee Kuan Yew,” Agbomhere stressed.
