APC, Chief John Oyegun yesterday reacted to the call for his
resignation by the party’s national deputy publicity
secretary, Comrade Timi Frank on the unimpressive
outcome of the National Assembly leadership election,
saying Frank acted in ignorance.
It will be recalled that Frank on Monday accused the
chairman of complicity in the mock election that produced
Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila as the
party’s official candidates for Senate President and Speaker
of the House of Representatives respectively.
Recall also that both men failed to clinch the position as
they were beaten by Senator Bukola Saraki and Hon. Yakubu
Dogora who sponsored themselves in the elections.
He said that Oyegun was under pressure to do the biddings
of the powerful in the party, stressing that his compromises
cost the party the position of the deputy senate president
which the opposition People’s Democratic Party, PDP
grabbed at the expense of APC.
But speaking to Vanguard yesterday in Abuja, the chairman
said that Frank acted in error.
Oyegun added that he was not under any kind of pressure to
conduct the election, saying that as the national chairman of
the party, it was incumbent on him to moderate various
interests that emerged during the time of the election.
He said: “It is neither here nor there. That’s his opinion and
views. And I suppose he’s entitled to them. But I read the
statement. He’s not a member of the National Working
Committee (NWC). He’s a member of NEC alright. But not of
the National Working Committee. So, it is neither here not
there.
“When things happen, people look for scapegoats and it is a
pity that he told the press instead of coming to say, look,
chairman, what happened? How did things go the way they
did? He might have just benefited from the education.
“I was not under any pressure in the sense that he’s taking
it but a party chairman is constantly under pressure
especially when the time comes for dividing the spoils of
office, naturally, people of different interest, it is for the
national chairman to moderate all these interests. And
usually not everybody will be pleased. One way or the other,
whatever decision you take, somebody is bound to be
unhappy. That’s the way things run.”
Meanwhile, a group under the aegis of Fresh Hope for
Nigeria, FHN, has lambasted the deputy national publicity
secretary of APC, Timi Frank for calling for the resignation
of the party’s national chairman.
The group which said that Frank had no reason to “attack”
the chairman also stated that he was not a member of the
NWC.
National coordinator of the group, Comrade Tamuno Banigo
said in Abuja that Frank erred in attacking the leadership of
his party on the pages of newspapers.
Accruing to Banigo, what Oyegun did was to harmonize the
interests with a view to presenting particular consensus
candidates for the elections instead of going into the
elections with legions of candidates.
“He has even gone ahead to call himself a member of the
National Working Committee, this is a lie, Timi Frank should
not continue to confuse the members of the public. He is
not known as a member of NWC. Nobody is allowed to
dictate for the party on how that should be done. This is
what the party feels it owe its members and we will continue
to do that.”
“The chairman of a big party like APC is always under
pressure from the all interest groups but his job is to
manage such pressure and be able to come up with what is
in the best interest of the party. Different people want
different things but the job of the chairman is to moderate
to get what is the best for the party”, Banigo said.
