As APC, Akeredolu play hide and seek on suspension saga

Media reports  indicated that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) last Friday wielded the big stick against the Ondo State governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, suspending him from the party for alleged anti-party activities. Though the spokesman of the party, Lanre Isa-Onilu, has been somewhat non-committal on this situation, it is clear that all is not well between the governor and the APC headquarters in Abuja.

But the story of the said suspension immediately heightened tension between Akeredolu’s loyalists and the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, who the governor’s supporters believe is at the centre of the controversial suspension of the governor. Many of the party leaders in the state have been unsparing, accusing Oshiomhole of creating crises in the state chapter of the party and condemning his style of leadership.

The APC NWC had on March 1, 2019 dedicated its readiness to instill discipline in its members, notwithstanding the office they occupy, when it suspended two of its governors, Rochas Okorocha of Imo State and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State. The party also announced it had issued a query to Governor Akeredolu of Ondo State. The party alleged that the suspended governors were guilty of anti-party activities which it said, “greatly affected the fortunes of its candidates in the recently conducted presidential and National Assembly elections in their states.”

The story of the suspension of Akeredolu came weeks after the hammer on his counterparts in Imo and Ogun states. Even if it has not been officially confirmed by the APC national secretariat, the hint of it is already causing tension in Ondo State. According to sources in the know of the development, the decision to suspend Akeredolu was hinged on the fact that he was found guilty of the similar offence leveled against him and the governors of Imo and Ogun who had both been suspended earlier.

Beside the fact that there has been no official announcement of the suspension of Akeredolu, coupled with fact that the governor himself has stated that there was no official communication to that effect, tension has been brewing in the state. Last week, as the story started doing the rounds, Akeredolu declared that there was no official confirmation of the said suspension and that the purported query reported in the media was not also communicated to him.

The governor insisted that he had not been suspended by the NWC of the party, saying “I have not received any letter be it query or suspension.” But the APC national publicity secretary, Isa-Onilu, had said in an interview that the query had been sent to Akeredolu, based on the directive of the NWC.

Meanwhile, a member of the NWC who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the governor’s suspension and disclosed that the NWC was aware of the governor’s claim that he had not received any query from the party. He said the party had mandated its national vice chairman, South-West, former Ekiti State governor, Chief Niyi Adebayo, to make the document available to Akeredolu.

Confirming Akeredolu’s suspension, the NWC member said: “Yes, the governor has been suspended by the NWC. He claimed that he has not seen the paper [query] and we asked the APC national vice chairman from the South-West to make a copy available to him.

“After the election, we want to build and not to destroy the house; but we want to do the needful. Since we suspended the Imo and Ogun state  governors, we want to treat them the same way.

“We have suspended them but they need to defend themselves. It is like a query and a suspension. They have to advance reasons why they did what they did. Some people grumbled that why would three people commit similar infraction and we would suspend only two? That was what brought about the suspension of the Ondo State governor.”

But another member of the NWC disclosed that the said suspension of Akeredolu was a decision taken by only a few members of the NWC who he said only hurriedly took the decision. According to him, the NWC did not reach a conclusion on the said suspension and that a group within the party was bent on announcing the suspension even without due process.

“At the last NWC meeting where the issue was debated, the NWC failed to reach a conclusion on that matter,” the NWC member said, adding that members of the committee, except the chairman of the party, were favourably disposed to Akeredolu’s removal. He also wondered the motive behind the alleged suspension without the ratification by the NWC.

Other party members spoken to in Ondo believed that there is no tangible evidence to nail Governor Akeredolu as far as the allegations of anti-party activities are concerned and that the story against him was orchestrated and sold to the public by those who are hell bent on easing him out of the party.

“We are aware of the high-wired intrigues that have been playing out all these years. It is something that grew out of the rancorous party primaries preceding the governor’s emergence. It is not new and we know what they are driving at,” one of the party leaders in the state told Nigerian Tribune in confidence.

He also stated that some leaders of the party from the South-West had earlier raised questions as to why Akeredolu should be singled out for punishment because, according to them, some leaders of the party who allegedly openly worked against APC by supporting the Alliance for Democracy (AD) during the 2016 election in the state were never queried. He added that the questions raised by those South-West leaders were the reason the NWC was unable to arrive at a conclusion on Akeredolu at its meeting.

“I don’t want to apportion blames, but there is the growing feeling that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who is the national chairman of our party, is orchestrating certain things. How will you suspend a governor in the party and you refuse to listen to explanation from him?

“Oshiomhole is showing that he is just too rigid and he should manage the party well to the advantage of all. He is trying to show that the best way to lead the party is to push out those who are against his views and his decisions. But we can assure you that strategy cannot work; it will fail because people are already getting tired of that,” he added.

Another leader of the party said the presidency was not happy with the decision of the APC NWC to suspend Akeredolu. According to the source, President Muhammadu Buhari was said to have called the APC national chairman, warning him of the danger the suspension of Akeredolu portends for the party. He further said the presidency earlier proffered some ways out for Oshiomhole after advising him to tread softly on his hard stance against some party’s stakeholders.

“The presidency was worried the action could make more states to fall into the hands of the opposition. Imagine the number of states already lost during the March 9 elections and no one is sure what the tribunals will bring. All hands have to be on the deck to continuously strengthen the party,” the source said, adding that people in the presidency were surprised that the issue of Akeredolu’s suspension still came to the fore after the matter appeared to have been laid to rest.

At the state level, those who spoke to Nigerian Tribune were unequivocal in declaring that the suspension of Akeredolu and possible expulsion from the party would amount to a bad omen for the party in the state and that the development would further compound the crisis in a party that has already split into different factions in the state.

Some members of the party believed that Akeredolu’s possible exit from the APC was already causing jitters even as they expressed worries that it might spell doom for the party in the state, especially with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) re-strategising and rebranding towards the 2020 governorship election. Many are also worried the development could distract the government from its developmental strides and force Governor Akeredolu into giving priority to “dirty politics,” rather than concentrating on the development of the state.

However, not a few have also linked the travails of the governor to his alleged “sins” of outsmarting the “anointed” aspirant of a group from outside the state to emerge as the Ondo APC flag-bearer in the 2016 governorship election, a development that has pitched him against some leaders of the party who see him as a sworn political enemy.

It was gathered that Akeredolu had made efforts several times to mend fences with some of his hitherto allies in the party who supported him in the 2012 election but the efforts have yielded no positive results. It was further said that the aggrieved camp had vowed to take its pound of flesh. That theory, however, seems to have elicited some sympathy for Akeredolu by some party supporters who believe that he is being persecuted politically.

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The suspension has continued to create ripples in the state and draw reactions. A political support group, The Campaign Concourse (TCC), said last week that the alleged suspension was a mere rumour which no leader of the party can confirm. The group, in a statement, issued in Akure and signed by its coordinator, Amudipe Marcus, said the rumour was sponsored by enemies of good governance who are not pleased with the developmental revolution the governor is presently executing in the state.

The group said: “The NWC of the party has not issued any official statement from Abuja or anywhere around the world to confirm the authenticity of the suspension of the governor. APC has not at any point communicated the governor or the party at the state level on such decision which is traditionally the party’s business.

“It is crystal clear that the purported suspension of Akeredolu was only sponsored by some detractors who are not happy with the development taking place across the state today. We are aware that when some governors were suspended, the national publicity secretary of the party was the one who announced such suspension. Our question is, ‘who announced Akeredolu’s suspension?’

“It is also funny that while some enemies of progress planted that story in a newspaper, the national publicity secretary of the party, Lanre Issa-Onilu, said he was not aware of any suspension of Akeredolu. As we speak, the governor has received any suspension neither query letter from the party.

“The people of Ondo State stand with Akeredolu. The governor has performed so well that he has represented that party well in the state. Those who are planting this story in the media to force such decision on the party leadership may have scored an offside goal. Their sinister move is seen but it missed the target.”

Similarly, the Alliance for New Nigeria (ANN) also described the reported suspension of Akeredolu as unfortunate, saying it came at a time when the spirit of the governor was very high in evolving unprecedented developmental projects in the state.

Speaking through its Ondo State chairman, Prophet Joshua Oguntuase, the party appealed to leaders of the APC not to distract the governor from fulfilling his electoral promises to the people of the state.

Real or imagined, the story of Akeredolu’s suspension has sent shock waves across the state. If the intent was to shake the governor, that report can be said to have achieved its aim. But all eyes and all ears remain glued to happenings at the APC secretariat in Abuja, the centre of activity, as far as the issue is concerned.