Estranged deputy national chairman, North of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Lawan Shuaibu returned to the party national secretariat on Wednesday.
Recall that the national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole announced the reversal of the suspension of Senator Shuaibu and the national vice chairman, North West, Aminu Abdulkadir on Tuesday at the end of the national working committee meeting of the ruling party.
Speaking with journalists at the party national secretariat, Senator Shuaibu, however, claimed that he was not suspended. He said he decided to stay away from the party secretariat to avoid breakdown of law and order.
He insisted that the leadership style of Comrade Oshiomhole was inimical to the growth of the ruling party just as he accused him of not willing to tolerate an alternative viewpoint.
He said: “Nobody suspended me, it was just a fight that I wanted to avoid. I don’t want to continue the fight and that was why I kept quiet. All I wanted to do was to raise my hand before the market burns because, by the time the market goes aflame, everybody may be consumed.
“All I have said in that letter have all come to pass. It is wrong to say that the war is over because to me, there was no war in the first place. My letter to Oshiomhole was very personal to either save the party or allow it to collapse.
“The structures of the party as a result of the inability of the leadership to reposition the party has become very weak. From wards to the national centres, the structures have become weak and that was what I was trying to avoid.
“I told him to come back to the track and if he cannot do it, let him leave because some of us have suffered to build this party. However, as he said, in the spirit of reconciliation, all these are now bygone because there is nothing anybody can do when he said he has extended the olive branch.
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“Oshiomhole is my very good friend and we have been very close friends but when something went wrong, I cannot sit down when the house is collapsing on our heads without telling the world what was happening.”
Asked for recommendation to move the party forward, the APC deputy national chairman south said he was not sure that Comrade Oshiomhole would heed his suggestion.
“There are ways of doing it. We are not newcomers in this game, we know how to revamp the party but it only depends on whether they can listen to us. I am not the chairman, he is. If we advise and he does not take our advice and if he refuses to take, what do we do?”
On the forthcoming governorship election in Edo State, he dismissed the fear of violence in the course of the party primary.
Senator Shuaibu said Governor Obaseki would leverage on his performance to pick the party governorship ticket despite opposition from certain chieftains in the state.
“It is not a time bomb. We all heard President Buhari during the last NEC meeting announced that any governor who has performed deserve a second term.
“There is no time bomb because why should you prefer any other person than the sitting governor? It is like that all over the world even in America that started this democracy.
“Donald Trump has no opposition and nobody is contesting against him. It does not make sense to bring another person to contest against the governor. Governor Obaseki is the strongest candidate of the APC we have in Edo State.”
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