Both governors are at loggerheads with Mr Oshiomole over the outcome of the party’s governorship primary election in their respective state.
The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said the party would win the 2019 elections without the support of Ogun state governor Ibikunle Amosun and his Imo state counterpart, Rochas Okorocha.
Both governors are at loggerheads with Mr Oshiomole over the outcome of the party’s governorship primary election in their respective state.
According to him, the governors are poor students of their own history who had forgotten they lost elections before winning on the platform of APC.
He said, “We know there are people across the divide who are fighting back. There is a gang up by those who are used to sucking the system without adding any value but Nigerians will not allow that.”
On the election, the party chairman boasted that the 2019 election would be a smooth sail for President Muhammadu Buhari and APC because ethnic and religious sentiments that characterised the 2015 election lost by former president Goodluck Jonathan would have no play this time around.
“The two candidates are from the North and they are both Muslims. People are now going to look at character. Nobody has ever said Buhari is a thief. But who said the other person (Atiku) is a thief? it was his boss (Obasanjo).
“When you are working with me and I said you are a thief, God will punish me if I support you. And when you are confused because your supply line has been chopped off, you now turned around to support the same person. That God that you called with your name to punish you if you support the person is about to go to work. And He will go to work in February and HE will punish him thoroughly and the person he is supporting, in favour of Nigeria.”
He alleged that the popularity of APC in Ogun and Imo had soared despite the alleged anti-party activities of their governors.
Oshiomhole said, “Those who think our political future is tied to them; they are poor students of their own political history. Some of these people who talk as if they are invincible, they have forgotten that they have run elections in the past and lost until they abandoned their parties and joined us. So if they return back, history will repeat itself.
“In Imo state today, APC will win more votes. My focus is on ordinary Imo voters because on that day, the governor would have only one vote, his son-in-law would have only one vote while his Commissioner for Happiness would have only one vote.
“But artisans, traders, teachers and workers whose salaries are not being paid have the same weight of vote and they are excited about the renewed possibility of a new government coming with fresh ideas free of all the encumbrances of the present system. So in Imo I’m very confident.
“Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is from Ogun State. The state is one of the most enlightened States in Nigeria. They have a huge history; they are not in a political kingdom headed by one person.
“If they were looking for true reconciliation, they wouldn’t have done what they did (defection of aides). That is not how democracy works. Nigeria must grow beyond this syndrome ‘I’m the governor, I will decide.’ You have only one vote. With due respect, I was once a governor. Overall APC is much stronger now.”
He, however, stated that sanction for those involved with anti-party lies with the electorate, just as he said the efforts of the Peace and Reconciliation Committee were already yielding fruits in some places while those with negotiable grievances were being sorted out.
He again promoted the APC presidential candidate, stating that he had the best credentials to lead the country to progress, economic recovery, peace and stability.