I have no plan to return as APC chairman

The former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, on Wednesday ruled out a possible return to the position he quit last year.

The APC National Executive Committee (NEC) dissolved the party’s National Working Commission (NWC) led by Oshiomhole during an emergency meeting held in Abuja on June 25, 2020.

The former Edo State governor, who disclosed this in a statement issued by his Senior Media Aide, Victor Oshoke, urged APC members to support the party’s National Caretaker and Extraordinary Convention Planning Committee headed by the Yobe State Governor, Mai Mala-Buni.

He was reacting to a statement credited to an APC member, Chukwuma Eze, alleging that some individuals in the party are plotting to bring him back as the party’s chairman.

Eze had in a statement claimed the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Festus Keyamo and some persons were spearheading the campaign to return the ex-governor as APC helmsman.

The statement read: “Festus Keyamo was in the forefront and indeed provided legal support through his personal legal assistants who went to court and argued on behalf of those that filed cases for the removal of Oshiomhole as national chairman of the APC.

“Keyamo also offered legal advice on the legality of the NEC that was convened for the dissolution of the Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee of APC and emergence of the Governor Mai-Mala Buni led Caretaker Committee.

“It is therefore frivolous for any right-thinking person to assume that Mr. Keyamo who actively supported the removal of the national chairman elected by over 6, 500 party delegates from across the 36 states and the FCT, because eight out of 27 Ward executive members purportedly suspended a national party chairman, would now plot to bring the same Oshiomhole back to office.

“It is strange that a serving minister would share on public Social Media platforms, what he captioned as a ‘Private and Confidential’ legal opinion for Mr. President who appointed him, especially considering that he was in the political kitchen when the pot of crisis he is now offering advice on was being cooked.

“If Keyamo has no ulterior motives behind his sudden change of legal interpretations of relevant aspects of the APC constitution and the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the right channel would have been to sit down with his co-minister, the Attorney General of the federation behind closed doors and put forth his arguments.”