Former Vice-President, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar
Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, Wednesday called for caution and reason in the brickbat between the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) , Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and another national leader of the party, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
In a statement issued by his Media Office in Abuja, Atiku took the position of a statesman by admonishing the leadership of the party to respect its own laws and rules. He said the leadership cannot make rules only to discard them while the game is on. He urged the party to insist on the promotion of rule of law and due process in the conduct of its affairs, noting that they are germane to the unity and stability of the party.
He said: “it is imperative for the national leadership of the party to live by the rules of internal democracy and respect for democratic consensus”, warning that “you cannot break your own rules without creating problems.”
He advised Odigie-Oyegun to urgently retrace his steps in order to build confidence among aggrieved members, charging the aggrieved parties in the Ondo election “to exercise restraint in seeking redress to the crisis, while also urging the leadership of the party to retrace its steps and do the needful to restore confidence among the conflicting parties in the state for the overall benefit of the ruling party”.
“Since the APC found veritable reasons to review the outcome of the gubernatorial primary election it conducted in Ondo State, and was able to establish valid grounds to cancel that election and call for a fresh one, the decision to deviate from its own resolution is a negation of due process and an unfashionable hollow in democratic best practices.
“It was wrong for the APC to have set aside a resolution it had reached aimed at resolving the crisis in our party in Ondo State. It is a recipe for acrimony and division”, he stated.
According to him, trying to paper over such a problem could only worsen the situation. The leadership must do an introspection and retrace its step, he advised.
According to Atiku, the party leadership should always be guided by respect for the rules, fairness, equity, neutrality and respect for democratic consensus.
Atiku lent his voice to the seething rage within the party top echelon over perceived anomalies in the Ondo guber primaries in which there were grave allegations of rigging, perfidy and sleight of hand. Tinubu whose candidate was schemed out in the race had asked Oyegun to resign his chairmanship of the party.
