By Bode Olagoke
Abuja
The All Progressives Congress (APC) Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Timi Frank, has described as uncharitable media reports credited to the national chairman of the party, Chief John Oyegun, over the recent defection of the former Vice President Atiku Abubakar.
Frank said the national chairman should have known that he lacks the moral right to talk about Alhaji Atiku because “his incompetency contributed to the former Vice President leaving the party.”
Chief Oyegun had criticised Atiku’s return to the PDP, describing it as nothing of importance. But in his reaction to Chief Oyegun’s comment, yesterday in Abuja, Frank said the APC national chairman should have remained sober “because that was how he (Oyegun) chased out President Muhammadu Buhari from the defunct ANPP but today Buhari is the president.
“When you eat from a man and come back to talk evil of the same man, posterity will definitely judge in this case. Oyegun is one of the biggest beneficiaries from Atiku in the APC, we expect him to have little fear of God while talking in public”, he said wondering how the Benin Chief could compromise his conscience against his benefactor.
“One should have expected our national chairman to focus on how to rebuild the APC now instead of concentrating his energy on Atiku Abubakar, who is no more with us.
“I hope Chief Oyegun will learn from the history of Alhaji Bamanga Tukur and the PDP when some of us were leaving the party. The party later paid the price and if care is not taken the APC too will pay the price of Oyegun’s incompetency in 2019.
“Our national chairman ought to know that politics is a game of numbers, so we expect him to take responsibility for everyone leaving the ruling party to opposition party under his watch.
“If Oyegun thinks that Atiku’s exit won’t create any impact, time will tell but I will still advice the party to relieve Chief Oyegun of his office before he makes more people to leave the APC.
“Atiku actually left the APC because of such national chairman who could not ensure internal democracy. Under Chief Oyegun, aspirants alleged that primary elections were won by higher bidders, party constitution suspended.
“We have seen the display of impunity, inability to put the BoT in place, lack of capacity to organise convention and other necessary meetings. So, Nigerians will expect our chairman to tell the world the value he has added to the ruling party?
“This is a national chairman, who has never won election for the APC even in his ward, how can he challenge a former vice president of Nigeria who has added values to democracy and even to the ruling party before he left?”, he queried.
However, he urged the real the APC leaders to go back to the drawing board and see how the party could be rebranded before 2019 general elections, saying under the current national chairman the party has gone into more deeper crisis.
