The suspended national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has said that the claim by the party’s Deputy National Secretary, Victor Giadom, that he had taken over as acting national chairman, is not supported by party rules.
Mr Oshiomhole spoke on Wednesday night on Channels Television.
He said: “My advice to my brother, Victor, is about common sense – in the absence of the chairman, there is nothing in our rules and the court can only interpret the rules of the party and the Constitution of Nigeria. It serves to common sense that if the chairman is absent, it should be the deputy; in the absence of the deputy, it is the vice-chairman. How does the deputy secretary come in?
“As we speak, we have a secretary in the office. People should put God first, our party’s interest second, and our democracy deep in their hearts and not trying to use any externality to destabilise it.
“Everybody knows that we ought to resolve issues in line with the party’s rule. How can a deputy national secretary, assuming he was still one, claim to be the chairman?” he querried.
Oshiomhole stepped aside following the judgement of the Court of Appeal in Abuja which upheld the decision of a lower court to stop him from functioning as APC national chair after being suspended by the party in his Edo State ward.
Oshiomhole said he accepted the judgment suspending him from office in good faith and will be meeting his lawyers on the next line of action.
He added that his suspension does not void the disqualification of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, from partaking in the party’s primary slated for June 22.
