TRACKING____Mike Odiegwu, Port Harcourt
Rivers Governor, Nyesom Wike, has berated the Imo State counterpart, Senator Hope Uzodinma, for accusing the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) of plotting the removal of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress ( APC), Adams Oshiomhole.
Uzodinma had said that persons behind the plot to remove Oshiomhole were working for the PDP.
But Wike said that the allegation was baseless and untrue.
The governor urged the judiciary to protect itself from what he referred to as the destructive tendencies of the APC.
Speaking in Government House, Port Harcourt on Tuesday evening, Wike said the comments credited to Uzodinma were unfortunate.
He said: “I read that Senator Hope Uzodinma said that the PDP conspired to plot the attempted removal of APC National Chairman. That is an unfortunate lie.
“It is unfortunate that Senator Hope Uzodinma will have the temerity to make that false allegation. Hope Uzodinma was an APC agent while he was in PDP. That was why APC used him as an agent to support Ali Modu Sheriff, but they failed.
“It is unfortunate that people of questionable character are in Government. Hope Uzodinma cannot talk about the attempted removal of APC National Chairman and mention the PDP. What is our business in the attempted removal of Oshiomhole?
“APC does not mean well for Nigeria. It is a party of strange bedfellows merely formed to take over power.
“If Senator Uzodinma dares to make such false comments again about the PDP , we will tell the world about him.
“That he fraudulently took the mandate of PDP does not mean that PDP is weak. Hope Uzodinma lacks the capacity to discuss the PDP.
“We must protect the Judiciary to do its work. But the Judiciary should protect itself. APC has destroyed the Judiciary”.
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Wike wondered why the judiciary should allow leaders of the APC to toss it had witnessed during the party’s internal crisis.
He decried the situation where the Court of Appeal granted a stay of execution on the suspension of the APC National Chairman but the FCT High Court went ahead to declare another person the Acting National Chairman.
He said only the National Executive Committee of political parties had such powers.
He said: “The Judiciary should be very careful. The Judiciary should be alert. It should not allow itself to be used. It should not allow itself to be destroyed.
“APC should not be allowed to destroy the Judiciary. Judiciary was there before APC. It was there before any political party. I cannot see the Judiciary being destroyed and keep quiet.
“I am not interested in what happens in the APC. But I am concerned with the Judiciary and its survival. ”
He urged the Chief Justice of Nigeria to caution judges.
“With what the APC is doing today, we may not have the Judiciary and everyone will pay the price. The party is trying to destroy the hope of the common man,” he said.
Wike regretted that the APC and her supporters attacked the Judiciary when judgment was not in their favour referring to the attacks on Justice Mary Odili in the Bayelsa State Governorship matter.
He described the APC aa an association that was only concerned about the removal of Former President Goodluck Jonathan adding that having removed Jonathan, APC had been unable to use power to the advantage of Nigerians.
The Governor wondered how a national official of the APC who resigned to contest the Deputy Governorship position in Rivers State, would still go to court to seek to be Acting National Chairman.
Wike agreed with the former Governor of Lagos State that the struggle in the APC was about 2023.
“I agree with the Former Lagos State Governor, Senator Bola Tinubu that the crisis in APC is about 2023. Everyone wants to be President or Vice President. This virus is indeed worse than coronavirus,” he said.
However, Uzodimma while speaking with in Owerri, the state capital, said Oshiomhole would not be humiliated out of office.
The governor, who is a former member of the PDP, said there were established guidelines for removing national officers of the party which are not being followed.
He also said those against the APC national chairman had been dropping the name of President Muhammadu Buhari to achieve their aim.
“Many of us, leaders of the party, are aware that those clamouring for the chairman’s removal are working with the PDP to destabilise the party,” Uzodinma said.
“But they will fail because we will not allow them to humiliate our national chairman out of the party through illegal means or by dropping the name of Mr. President.
“So, I advise those dropping the name of the President on their wicked plans to desist forthwith. He has done nothing wrong and no amount of propaganda and illegal plots can succeed in removing him from office.”
