At the Presidential Villa yesterday Oshiomhole was still in charge, leading the Kwara State chapter of the party and its governorship candidate, Mr. Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, to Buhari, who charged them to end the reign of the Saraki dynasty in the state.
President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday in Abuja, gave the Kwara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) marching orders to dislodge Senate President Bukola Saraki and win Kwara State.
The presidential order, issued during a closed-door meeting with leaders of the chapter in the State House, Abuja provided an opportunity for diversion of attention from brewing crises in the ruling party that its National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, is battling to survive a rebellion by some of its governors, who are mobilising to remove him from office.
Although Oshiomhole told State House correspondents yesterday that he was on a firm ground, THISDAY gathered that Governors Ibikunle Amosun and Abdulaziz Yari of Ogun and Zamfara States respectively, are relentlessly mobilising the party’s 21 governors to force a National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, where he would be removed from office.
At the Presidential Villa yesterday Oshiomhole was still in charge, leading the Kwara State chapter of the party and its governorship candidate, Mr. Abdulrahman Abdulrazak, to Buhari, who charged them to end the reign of the Saraki dynasty in the state.
The news of the president’s order came through Abdulrazaq, who boasted that the era of the dominance of Saraki in Kwara politics was over.
He said, “Kwara has become a battleground and as you can see, we have come here to see Mr. President having gone through a hectic process of primaries. We went through direct primaries in which about a 100, 000 party faithful voted.
“We had our difficulties but we have come to see the president to tell him that all is well and we are in unison and he has given us marching orders to go and take Kwara. He is history, we have gone pass him and we are looking at Government House.
Meanwhile, the president’s spokesman, Mr. Femi Adesina, said the president described the late Major General Tunde Idiagbon as a very rare example of what loyalty to one’s fatherland and to a superior should be.
According to him, the president made the remark when he received APC governorship aspirants and members of the party from the three senatorial zones of Kwara State.
Adesina said Buhari advised Nigerians to remain faithful and loyal to the country, threatening, however, that anyone who has another place to go other than Nigeria should proceed.
“You don’t have to be in uniform to be loyal. What I said long ago in 1984 is still valid today. We have no other country but Nigeria. Others who feel they have another country may choose to go. We will stay here and salvage it together,” he said.