The National Chairman of the All Progress Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, said Tuesday there was no rift between a national leader of the party, Bola Tinubu, and himself, but just differences of opinions.
While obviously careful not to call out Tinubu, who was instrumental to his emergence as the national chairman, Odigie-Oyegun however expressed reservations about the method adopted by Tinubu to vent his grievances.
The Chairman, who spoke to journalists in Abuja after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, said that the procedures for ousting a national chairman was in the constitution and not on the pages of newspapers.
He admitted that the wordings of Tinubu’s letter accusing him of highhandedness and being a mole in the party, had been a tad too harsh given their antecedents.
Oyegun said ”The method of getting rid of a national chairman if that is what I will call it, are spelt out in the constitution they don’t take place on the pages of newspapers”.
However the party’s national chairman insisted that “there is no rift with Asiwaju we have differences of opinion, differences of perception and I think that is normal. Yes, I agree that the nature of the statement was a bit harsh”.
Asked if the party would rescind the Ondo election primaries since it was causing crisis in the party, Oyegun said”Is only INEC that can make U-turn on Ondo”.
Tinubu had faulted Oyegun’s refusal to heed the recommendation of the party’s panel to annul the Ondo primaries and called for his resignation stating that he was no longer fit to lead the party.
Odigie-Oyegun who refused to go into details of what happened in the Ondo primaries also told journalists that the report was with the Jigawa State Governor, Badaru Abubakar, the chairman of the primaries committee.
The Two party leaders met the previous day at the President’s book launch for the first time since Tinubu wrote Oyegun.
On allegations that he sponsored some youths who protested at the party’s headquarters against the alleged highhandedness of Asiwaju, the APC national chairman said, “God forbid, anybody who knows me knows that that is not my style. I’m equally shocked and I’m going to look into it and find out why and who is behind it”.
Asked if the handshake and pleasantries shared with Tinubu at Buhari’s book launch were genuine, he replied, “Do they know how far back our association goes? Do they know that we were in the trenches together in the NADECO days? Why can’t people who have mutual respect for each other have different opinions? All we had was difference of opinions, yes it was expressed a bit harshly but that doesn’t remove the basic fact that we have worked together for a very long time”.
Oyegun also noted that the outcome of the Edo elections was an indication that Nigerians still have faith in the fact that “if there is any one man that can fix their situation it is President Muhammadu Buhari”.
