‘Buhari’s dinner-meeting with aggrieved aspirants is window-dressing’

Last Tuesday’s dinner held by President Muhammadu Buhari with aggrieved aspirants of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the presidential villa in Abuja has been described as a mere window-dressing exercise that will not resolve the crises that have engulfed the party.

This was the submission of Dr S. K. C Ogbonnia and Alhaji Mumakai Unagha in a statement issued on behalf of aggrieved 2019 APC Presidential aspirants and made available to journalists in Warri on Thursday.

“The meeting by itself was in line with our earlier call on the president to wade into the crisis tearing the party apart.

“However, we cannot in good conscience endorse the nature of the meeting or its outcome on the following grounds,” the group insisted.

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The aggrieved aspirants maintained that the APC national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, must be ousted from the office of peace must return to the party.

“The dinner-meeting lacked in objectivity. The main goal of the meeting, we demanded and continue to demand, is to perfect the quickest way to end the crisis by removing the embattled National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.

“Comrade Oshiomhole is clearly the bad apple dragging our great party down. His actions or inactions created deeper crisis in nearly every state and electoral constituency in the Nigeria.

“Anything less than his removal is to risk a woeful outing in the forthcoming 2019 elections. The narrative being peddled by Oshiomhole sponsors that the post-primary crisis a common phenomenon is self-serving.

“Not this magnitude! And, even if the primaries are to blame, how come the main opposition party, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), is not mired in similar crisis?

“The dinner has created more problems than solutions. The dinner was not inclusive.

“The list of attendees is a hand-picked yes-group by the god-father of Adams Oshiomhole.

“A progressive list should boast of aggrieved members from across the country, including those who oppose or support the continuation of Oshiomhole as chairman.

“Any agenda for a reconciliation meeting ought to also include clear ways to refund nomination fees paid by aspirants who were schemed out through automatic/consensus arrangements.

“Our supporters who labored to cough out the exorbitant nomination fees feel duped and have sworn not to work for the party unless Mr Oshiomhole resigns or is removed,” the former APC presidential aspirants insisted.