Oshiomhole writes-off Okorocha, Amosun, says they have no electoral values

All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, has suggested that governors of Imo and Ogun, Rochas Okorocha and Ibikunle Amosun, have no electoral value.

He said on Wednesday, that the APC was going to emerge victorious in the states in the coming general elections despite the governors’ vow to work against the ruling party.

Okorocha is believed, will work for Action Alliance (AA), where his son-in-law and former Chief of Staff, Uche Nwosu, who recently dumped APC is furthering his ambition to govern Imo.

Amosun on the other hand had openly vowed to work to ensure his anointed candidate, Abiodun Akinlade, of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) becomes his successor.

Nwosu and Akinlade, who are preferred governorship candidates of Okorocha and Amosun respectively, had dumped the APC after losing the party’s governorship ticket.

Okorocha, Amosun and Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State are at loggerheads with the national chairman for not recognising their preferred governorship candidates.

But in his reaction to the development, Oshiomhole said when he received APC women leaders from Edo State and Abuja, who paid him a solidarity visit in his office in Aso Drive, Abuja, said that the situation in Imo and Ogun states would not affect the chances of the party in 2019 elections.

“Those who think our political future is tied to them ; they are poor students of their own political history.

“Some of these people who talk as if they are invincible, they have forgotten that they have run elections in the past and lost until they abandoned their parties and joined us. So if they return back, history will repeat itself .

“Whether you are a big or small man, the rules are not supposed to discriminate. Our popularity in Imo and Ogun today is much higher. It is not that once you are a governor you have high electoral value.

“Yes in APC, our governors have high electoral value but we also a few who are electoral liabilities.

“In Imo state today, APC will win more votes. My focus is on ordinary Imo voters because on that day, the governor would have only one vote, his son-in-law would have only one vote while his Commissioner for Happiness would have only one vote.

“But artisans, traders, teachers and workers whose salaries are not being paid have the same weight of vote and they are excited about the renewed possibility of a new government coming with fresh ideas free of all the encumbrances of the present system. So in Imo I’m very confident.

“Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is from Ogun State. The state is one of the most enlightened States in Nigeria. They have a huge history; they are not in a political kingdom headed by one person.

“If they were looking for true reconciliation, they wouldn’t have done what they did ( defection of aides). That is not how democracy works. Nigeria must grow beyond this syndrome ‘I’m the governor, I will decide.’ You have only one vote . With due respect, I was once a governor. Overall APC is much stronger now,” he said.

Oshiomhole assured that the APC would review its rules to see if any of it had been breached, adding that the real sanction would be dealt the governors by the electorate.

Speaking further, the APC leader hit hard on former President Olusegun Obasanjo for supporting the candidature of the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar ahead of the 2019 general election.

Oshiomhole said Obasanjo should recall his statement where he invited divine punishment upon himself should he support his former vice president in his presidential ambition.

He said, “When you are working with me and I said you are a thief, God will punish me if I support you. And when you are confused because your supply line has been chopped off, you now turned around to support the same person.

“That God that you called with your name to punish you if you supported the person is about to go to work.

“And HE will go to work in February and HE will punish him thoroughly and the person he is supporting, in favour of Nigeria,” he said.

He said both President Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar would be judged beyond the religious and tribal lines as both are from the north and Muslims.

He added that Nigerians would vote for them based on their character.

“The two candidates are from the North and they are both Muslims. People are now going to look at the character. Nobody has ever say Buhari is a thief. But who said the other person is a thief? it was his boss.

“We know there are people across the divide who are fighting back. There is a gang up by those who are used to sucking the system without adding any value but Nigerians will not allow that,” he said.