Imo State Governor, Mr Rochas Okorocha, warned on Monday that the ruling All Progressives Congress could lose its bearing completely by 2023 if the National Chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, was allowed to continue to run its affairs.
Okorocha claimed that Oshiomhole was also to blame for the party’s failure to capture or retain some states during the February and March general elections.
The Imo governor, who is battling to get a Certificate of Return to the Senate from the Independent National Electoral Commission, spoke with State House correspondents in Abuja after he held a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
He raised a particular issue concerning the zoning of the principal offices of the 9th National Assembly, noting that it would appear that the party had concluded to ignore the South-East.
Okorocha stated that ignoring the South-East might be the beginning of real trouble for the APC ahead of 2023.
The governor said, “I have been watching carefully what is happening in the National Assembly; it is a very interesting drama. But, all I ask of them is that they should consider the South-East in their calculations.
“This nation will not be properly balanced if the South-East is not carried along properly in the affairs of the National Assembly. Nobody seems to be talking about the South-East; it looks like the South-East doesn’t have a place anymore. That is wrong, politically speaking and that will not be good for APC. Because there is going to be a bigger APC after President Muhammadu Buhari must have left the seat.
“My fear now is that APC may have a serious set back in 2023 because the Oshiomhole-led executive is actually turning APC into a regional minority party, which shouldn’t be. Right now in the whole of South-East, we don’t have an APC governor. So, if there is any discussion in Nigeria now within the APC governors and President Muhammadu Buhari, there will be nobody from the Sout- East. This is what the APC chairman has done in the South-East.”
On his inability to get his certificate of return, Okorocha again blamed the problem partly on the leadership of the party, which he said did not seem to bother.
He added, “You know the imposition we suffered in the party. When you say the party, you talk about the leadership of that party… I don’t have a problem with the working committee of that party. I only have a problem with the chairman of that party, who took it upon himself to do the wrong thing against me for just no cause and to fight a battle that he can never win.”
PUNCH
