The ruling APC has insisted the suspension of Governors Rochas Okorocha and Ibikunle Amosun will not affect the party’s victory in the March 9, governorship and state House of Assembly election.
The party’s APC National Publicity Secretary Lanre Issa-Inilu gave the assurance while speaking with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on the development on Friday in Abuja.
On Friday, the APC National Working Committee (NWC) suspended Okorocha and Amosun, alongside the Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON), Osita Okechukwu, and the Minister of Niger Delta, Usani Usani.
And some bigger action, including expulsion may be on the cards, as soon as the party’s National Executive Committee take up the matter.
According to him, the two governors had been sponsoring candidates against those recognised by the party, and so the party had to follow the right procedures; taking steps to first get them to see reason why they needed to retract their steps.
Amosun is backing AbdulKadir Akinlade, the governorship candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM) against APC’s Dapo Abiodun while in Imo, Okorocha is supporting his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, the candidate of the Action Alliance, against Hope Uzodinma, the APC candidate.
Okechukwu and Uzani were also said to have been involved in similar acts.
“They occupy the position they are in today, courtesy of the ticket given to them by this party. To now use that opportunity to work against the interest of the party, you do not expect the party to look the other way.
“More so when you realise that APC is a party of discipline that has come to establish the fact that to deepen democracy, you must subject everybody to the rule of law, and that there must be equality for all before the law,” he said.
He recalled that when the APC presidential campaign train was led by President Muhammadu Buhari to Ogun, they were thoroughly embarrassed by a different party.
Mr Issa-Onilu said this was done with the support of the governor, who he said, brought in certain elements who were not APC members to the campaign venue to create problems.
“This actually embarrassed our president, but we thought at that period, we were facing the presidential and National Assembly Election and that it was not the appropriate time for us to do anything that might be destructive to our course, so we waited,” he said.
He added that though there was a window for the governors to show remorse and act appropriately to convince the party’s leadership that they would play by the rules, they never did.
He said rather Okorocha and Amosun came out openly to endorse their choice candidates against the party’s candidates.
“Which ever way you look at it, that is anti-party activity, it is beyond the limit, and tolerating such, will mean that our change mantra is just a mantra without meaning,” the APC spokesman said.
He, however, said that the duration of their suspension would be determined by the time the report of the investigative committee on the matter was submitted to the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC).
“I have forwarded the report to NEC, recommending their expulsion, the limit of the powers of the party’s NWC is to suspend; it does not have the power to expel.
“It is only NEC that can take that action, so we have exercised what the Constitution of the party allows us to do, the report of our investigation will be put in place and passed on to NEC for further action,” he said.
He added that the APC NWC had also decided to issue a query to Governor Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State for anti-party activities, adding that the party already had video evidence against him.
Akeredolu had earlier been accused by the Ondo Mandate Group, an APC support group, of working against the party and the presidency.