Oshiomhole Speaks On Fighting Party Members

Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has reacted to the crisis in his party which has placed him at loggerheads with Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

Oshiomhole who is currently being asked to resign as party chairman said he doesn’t have to fight with any member of the party.

According to Oshiomhole who addressed members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, who decamped to the APC in Edo North, he would rather channel his energy towards fighting opposition parties.

He said: “The good thing about entertainment is that you choose the kind of entertainment you want but when it comes to rules, they are rigid and they are even enforceable so I think that sooner than later everybody in the APC family will see the futility of fighting one another.

“I never dissipated energy fighting within the party, I was never involved and I will never be involved in intra-party fighting, rather, I reserve my energy for the opposition and once they ring the bell for the contest, I deploy that reserve energy.

“I have not publicly or privately fought or abused any APC leader or member, any ACN leader or member, any AC leader or member.

“That does not mean that a couple of people didn’t do what I didn’t like but I also recognized that that is why we are humans and my responsibility as a leader is to identify those people, bring them, persuade them, caution them where necessary and guide them on how to go forward.”

Admitting that there is crisis in his party, Oshiomhole recalled how cars were burnt at the airport to prevent the aircraft he was in from landing in Benin.

He added: “There must be disagreement, there must be contests, there must be legitimate divergent views about how to arrive at a destination.

“You know we had an incident like that in Benin when some people just chose to go and buy disused vehicles, put them on the road, burn the asphalt on airport road just because they didn’t want me to land in Benin; what was the purpose of my coming? To receive more people into our party.

“My language has always been our doors are open, let people who share our ideology come to join us when they do they enjoy all privileges. We have always been receiving people from PDP and my message is the same and it will remain the same whether I am chairman or not.”