North’s plot to force Tinubu out of APC thickens

• Buhari under pressure to deploy EFCC, DSS against him

By DICKSON OMONODE

THE hidden agenda of the northern oligarchy to frustrate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu out of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is getting deeper as the ruling party is thrown into protracted conflicts. Investigations revealed that the northern oligarchy finds a waiting tool in the APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to be used against Tinubu.

Accordingly, the impasse between APC National Chairman, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, and the party’s national leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, is beginning to take new dimension following the chairman’s caustic reaction to Tinubu’s earlier outburst, thus, widening the gulf of intransigency between the party’s leaders.

The Tinubu/Oyegun imbroglio which has its remote root in the ‘unsatisfactory’ primary election for the APC governorship ticket in Ondo State, is beginning to generate new apprehension that the perceived gang up against Tinubu is being strengthened to frustrate him out of the APC power structure.

A loyalist to the former Lagos Sate Governor, who spoke to National Daily on the condition of anonymity, was of the view that the power game in the party has shown clear hidden agenda to scheme Tinubu out of the APC. He stated that this belief has become germane since it is widely known that Oyegun consulted with the President before hitting back at Tinubu. “We had expected that the national chairman of our party was going to come out with a sober response that will enable our party to resolve the lingering conflict urgently, but we were surprise that the chairman came out spitting fire,” he stated. He maintained that “Oyegun’s boldness and confidence cannot be without reinforcement from above;” adding: “we suspect that he may have assurance of support during his consultation with the President, He will be acting on a script.”

Oyegun, had in a statement, said that Tinubu’s allegations, are baseless and reckless, arguing out his position in the detailed statement last Friday.

National Daily gathered that the emerging suspicion of the deepening gang up against Tinubu is being strengthened by the decision of the Federal Government to drop the forgery case against the President of Senate, Dr. Bukola Saraki, and the deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, last Friday. Tinubu’s loyalists alleged that there appears to be a sort of internal realignment in the APC towards ossifying a new power bloc in the party.

Meanwhile, a stakeholder from the North articulated that Tinubu’s political credentials are applicable for national cohesion. He argued that the need to attract national spread was why Oyegun was adopted as national chairman.

He decried that another APC/PDP and other smaller political parties contraption are underway again to set up government in 2019, forced by Oyegun and like minds who want to dismantle President Muhammad Buhari’s political grandstanding towards 2019.

“The southwest gave unparalleled support to Buhari to be President, President Muhammad Buhari is incapable of winning any election in Nigeria without the southwest support. Messing up Asiwaju Tinubu’s goodwill in APC has broken the winning elements in APC in presidential eections. Asking the Southwest to all move into AD is only a preparation or incubation towards 2019,” he declared. He added that the name the 2019 presidential political party will adopt or will take has not been decided; advocating inter alia that, under the political marshalling of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. Nigeria will move on, progress and survive.

Apparently, President Muhammadu Buhari is believed to be under pressure to deploy the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the DSS to go after Tinubu at the height the power struggle in the party.

To strengthen the new political frontier in the APC, the Federal Government last Friday withdrew the forgery charges instituted against the Senate President Saraki, Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, former Clerk of the National Assembly, Salisu Maikasuwa, and Deputy Clerk, Benedict Efeturi.

Saraki is believed within the ruling party circle to have been at loggerhead with Tinubu since he became the Senate President contrary to Tinubu’s support and sponsorship of Senate Ahmed Lawal for Senate President and George Akume for deputy senate president. The withdrawal of the suit is suspected to have added more forces to the political team against Tinubu.

Aliyu Umar (SAN), lead prosecuting counsel, had, hwoever, explained before the trial judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu, of the Jabi Division of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, that the charges were withdrawn because of a pending case related to the charges before the Federal High Court, Abuja.

“This government respects the rule of law, and hierarchy of the judiciary. It is obvious from these two applications (filed by Saraki and Ekweremadu) and the similar case before your learned brother, Justice Kolawole, at the Federal High Court who is dealing with the issue that we are withdrawing the charges. It is trite that two matters of the same subject matter cannot be before different courts of coordinate jurisdiction,” Umar was cited to have said.

Thereafter, he requested that, “… the amended charge dated October 5, 2016 and also the original dated June 10, 2016 and filed the same date be struck out and all the four defendants be discharged.”

It was indicated that the case before Justice Gabriel Kolawole of the Federal High Court in Abuja which was referred to by the prosecutor was a civil case filed by a serving Senator, Gilbert Nnaji, to challenge the then ongoing investigation into the alleged forgery of the Senate rule by Saraki and others.

It was also disclosed that the application by Umar for the withdrawal of the charges was not opposed by the defence lawyers comprising, Messrs Ikechukwu Ezechukwu (SAN), Mahmud Magaji (SAN), Paul Erokoro (SAN) and Joseph Daudu (SAN).

More so, the anti- Tinubu protest at the APC Secretariat, Abuja, which took place with impunity, further deepens the suspicion of edging Tinubu out of the ruling party.

The dangerous trend in the Tinubu saga is the emerging sectional or inter regional dispute within and beyond the APC that it is generating. The South West is becoming pitched against the South-South within the APC, while other South West interests outside the APC are rising in defence of their own.

It is curious that former Vice President Atiku Abubakar who had supported Tinubu on his call for the resignation of Oyegun now commended the President for the withdrawal of the suit against Saraki and Ekweremadu. Atiku, commending President Buhari for withdrawing criminal charges against Senate Presiden Saraki and Deputy Senate President Ekweremadu, had described the action as “a wise and timely move.”

Atiku had observed that the Federal Government’s move signifies that it places a value on the “much-needed cordial relationship between the Executive and Legislature and would take steps to ensure that it remains harmonious in the interest of the nation, and the advancement of our democracy.”

Only in a “situation of harmonious, cordial and corporative relationship between the three arms of government” can real progress and development can take place in the polity, Atiku had argued in a statement by his media office.

The widening gulf of disharmony in the APC was given credence by the divergent arguments between Pius Akinyelure, APC National Vice Chairman (South West) and Hilliard Eta, APC National Vice Chairman (South-South).

Akinyelure had alleged that APC national Chairman, Odigie-Oyegun; National Secretary, Mai Buni’; and the National Organising Secretary, Osita Izunaso; were complicit in manipulating the controversial Ondo primary election. The Vice National Chairman, South West, had disclosed that the National Working Committee (NWC) had agreed to submit the name of an interim candidate to INEC to allow for the conduct of a fresh primary, but Oyegun, Buni and Izunaso went ahead to unilaterally forward Akerodolu’s name.

Hilliard Eta, National Vice Chairman, South-South, on the other divide, contended that the NWC rejected the recommendation of the appeal panel for fresh primary election. He refuted the allegation of Akinyelure that Oyegun compromised the majority decision of the NWC.
Eta had narrated that no vote was taken (on the issue of submission of Akeredolu’s name).

“Before we met on the last day for the submission of name to INEC, we had met three times earlier. In that meeting, there were two reports before the NWC that of the appeal committee was voted on,” he admitted.

Eta revealed: “that very day, we were 14 in number, not 11 as we have it in the media. 13 of us voted for the appeal committee report to be thrown out; only one person voted for us to retain the report and that person was the National Vice-Chairman, North-Central, Alhaji Zakari Indeh. Pius Akinyelure voted that the report should be thrown out.”

He further disclosed: ”after that, we mandated our National Chairman and Secretary to go out and do wider consultations so that we can have a political solution to the heated environment the situation has caused the party. When they returned, they told us of their efforts to reach many people for a political solution but it was very clear to us that we were not going to have political solutions.”

“We had to go through the procedure as we have it in our constitution, which is that when you send a team to conduct an election and there is a petition on their report, it is the NWC, as the appellant institution, that has the power to consider the merits of the election committee report and that of the appeal committee report,” Eta highlighted.

However, Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State, a member of the PDP, deepened the ethnic colouration of the Tinubu saga, agitating that: “humiliation of Tinubu is as good as humiliation of the Yoruba race.”

Fayose was gathered to have declared that even though he is not an APC member, he is standing in defence of the Yoruba nation “by saying no to the continuous dishonourable treatment” being meted to Tinubu, because the former Lagos governor has paid his dues. “To me, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu should not be seen just as an APC leader but acknowledged as a major stakeholder in the Yoruba nation that we must all protect beyond politics,” Fayose was cited to have declared.

The Ekiti State Governor contended: “If Tinubu is allowed to be embarrassed and disgraced just the way our past leaders were humiliated by these same elements, the Yoruba nation would have been made to suffer for uprightness,”

Fayose had protested that the “sponsored” protest against Tinubu in Abuja is “unfortunate,” considering how Tinubu invested heavily in the formation of the APC; decrying that H it is, especially, sad that Tinubu’s fellow kinsmen who he brought up, politically, are part of the conspiracy against him.

Fayose stated that the Yoruba kept allowing themselves to be used against their leaders for momentary political gains at the expense of the collective interests of the Yoruba nation, citing the experience of late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, who was sent to prison by the “conspiracy and collaboration of some Yorubas with the external aggressors.”

“We should not sit back and watch while those he used his own sweat to make conspired with others to humiliate him,” Fayose insisted.

In a seeming feeling of a new political firmament, the Senate leadership celebrated an end to what they considered “politically-induced distraction” which has led to the wastage of precious time “in pursuing this needless case.”

Both Saraki and Ekweremadu commended the Federal Government for coming to terms with the lack of merit of the case, saying that the executive “finally displayed courage and strength of character in halting the unnecessary waste of precious time of both parties.”

Meanwhile, most APC leaders anticipate that President Buhari should expand the scope of intervention for urgent resolution of the lingering conflicts to forestall implosion of the party.