Ahead of the 2023 polls, the immediate past national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has advised aggrieved party members to withdraw their cases from court.
Oshiomhole who spoke Friday at a meeting of top party members in Benin confessed that he has learned hard lessons from his experience with two of his acolytes: Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki and deputy governor Philip Shaibu who later turned against him.
The former Edo State governor who is the ruling party’s candidate for Edo North Senatorial district said that he never imposed any candidate on the party in his native Edo North during the just concluded primary of the party.
Drumming passionate support for the party’s presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, he emphasized that the only person he ever told to step down is his younger brother, Saidu who had the automatic ticket for Etsako West Constituency 2 ticket but had to compel him to quit because it will not be proper to have two brothers name on different ballots.
He said: “I have learned my lesson. All those people I supported before, how did it end up? I only told my younger brother to step down because Oshiomhole can not be going for senate and another Oshiomhole going for House of Assembly. Na only Oshiomhole dey? In Edo North, I never imposed anybody.”
He reiterated President Muhammadu Buhari’s pleading that aggrieved aspirants should settle all cases out of court for the sake of unity, noting that party supremacy should be uppermost in the minds of all faithful.
He reminded that he chose not to mount a legal challenge when he was ousted as the party national chairman, not because he didn’t have a chance of upturning it but for the sake of party unity and cohesion.
Oshiomhole pleaded: “We should not fight to finish. I didn’t go to court when I was removed. It was not because I didn’t have a chance. It is an honour to be the national chairman of the party even if it was for one day. If the Supreme Court ruled that I should come back but the party leaders said no, who will I preside over?
“I chose to sleep over my right by not contesting my removal and I am enjoying it. I chose not to go to court. I told my lawyer to withdraw the case from court. Please take a cue from my example and withdraw all cases as regards primary from the court.”
At the meeting which witnessed the presence of former Deputy Governors Pius Odubu; Lucky Imasuen; former governorship aspirant, Gen. Charles Airhiavbere; Deputy Majority Leader Peter Akpatason among others, the state party chairman, Col. David Imuse disclosed that out of the 22 cases in court following the party primary, 12 of the litigants have agreed to withdraw their cases from court.
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