THE All Progressives Congress (APC) National Working Committee (NWC) has upbraided the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-Corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay, over his criticism of the former’s handling of party affairs.
Sagay, in an interview published at the weekend, by a national daily, dismissed the Chief John Odigie Oyegun-led national working committee as lacking focus and capacity to reign in corrupt elements holding elective offices on the party’s platform.
But the APC NWC, in a statement signed the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Bolaji Abdullahi, faulted the chairman of PACAC in his claim and further accused him of disdain for the ruling party, and by extension, President Muhammadu Buhari, which it claimed brought Professor Sagay ‘’ back from inevitable oblivion and puts him in a position in which he now feels superior to everyone…’’
The party noted that President Buhari could not be insulated from the party that gave him the platform to contest an election in 2015 and galvanised support for his ultimate victory.
It further warned all appointees of President Buhari to refrain henceforth from casting aspersions on the APC that gave their principal the ticket to contest an election.
“You cannot love the fruit and hate the tree that produced it, ‘’ the ruling party noted.
The statement, entitled: ‘’APC to Sagay: You are the rogue elephant, read in part: ‘’Our attention has been brought to an interview published on pages 46-47 of The Nation Newspaper of Sunday, September 24, 2017, granted by the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Anti-corruption (PACAC), Professor Itse Sagay (SAN).
“In the said interview, Sagay described the leadership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as “the most unprincipled group of people,’’ who are “encouraging and accepting rogues” in the party.
“Asked by the interviewer if he would stop speaking if the president asks him to stop speaking, he said: “Yes, he is my employer. If he tells me to stop talking, I’ll stop talking. But I have certain rights to that I can exercise in addition to that because I’m not going to be in a position where I am impotent. So, I must obey him, but I can go beyond that and obey myself too. That’s it.”
“It appears, however, that Sagay does not have anything constructive to say about anything.
He only knows how to tear down and assault everyone and everything.”
and then