The Forum of State Chairmen of the All Progressives Congress APC has thrown its weight behind their National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in the face of calls for his resignation by the Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum PGF, Salihu Moh. Lukman. The forum in a statement Thursday in Abuja asked the APC Governors to sack Mr. Lukman from his position as the DG of the PGF.

The statement was jointly signed by its Chairman, Ali Bukar Dalori and Secretary, Mr. Ben Nwoye.

“The attention of state chairmen of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has been drawn to a statement credited to one Salihu Lukman, who claimed to be the Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum.

We have decided to ignore his crass display of ignorance in the past, but as stakeholders in the progressive party, we find his actions and comments very suspicious and one that cannot be said that is coming from anyone close to the APC family.

The position of the National Chairman of our great party is not a child’s play and we cannot allow it to be demeaned by questionable characters like Salihu Lukman who as it seems is being used by some disgruntled elements and even the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) with a view to causing disaffection in our great party and we cannot continue to condone that”, the chairmen said.

The APC state chairmen said they remain grateful to God that as a party, with the leadership of the current National Working Committee (NWC), led by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, “we successfully overwhelmed our opponents at the polls, re-electing our dear President, Muhammadu Buhari, maintained our dominance in the states and won overwhelming majority in the National Assembly.

The Oshiomhole led NWC did not relent. They went on to ensure that we avoided what happened in the 8th Assembly where leaders opposed to the developmental strides of our dear President, Buhari emerged as leaders of the party.

The NWC galvanized other leaders of the party to ensure that we produce a national Assembly leadership that will work in tandem with the APC led Executive in ensuring that we give dividends of democracy which the party promised Nigerians. We as chairmen are shocked that Mr. Lukman and his co-travelers are not seeing this great feat achieved by the Comrade Oshiomhole led NWC. “

“As chairmen of the APC, we all knew that the problem we had in some states mentioned by Salihu Lukman such as Zamfara, Rivers, and Adamawa were not created by Oshiomhole but was as a result of the power play between the political gladiators in the APC family in those states

But because Salihu Lukman has decided to dwell in the past, he refused to see the issues in those states that most of them even arose before the Oshiomhole led NWC came into place. How on earth will anyone if not for mischief accuse Oshiomhole of the defeat we suffered in Adamawa and Bauchi where we have sitting governors?

“Salihu Lukman is talking about NEC meeting, I wonder why he is crying more than the bereaved. Some of us have interacted with our progressives governors and we were informed that Salihu Lukman is on his own and actually expressed their disappointment over his continuous unpalatable comments against the National Chairman of our party.

This man has never held any elective position and we wonder why he is interested in the NEC meeting which has no business with him. We the chairmen want to use this opportunity to appeal to our governors to sack this man who is obviously being used to cause disaffection within the APC.

It is obvious that he is an enemy within because if he is actually a party man who is worth being the DG of the Progressives Governors Forum, he would not be seen attempting to rubbish the name of our National Chairman. He is the one representing the leader of our party who is the President and he does not deserve insults from people like Salihu Lukman. Besides, it is also said that Salihu Lukman has failed to see that since the coming of Oshiomhole, there is no party discipline and supremacy of the party. and we are glad today that we have been able to achieve party discipline under Oshiomhole because the APC was derailing before the coming of this NWC.

And today so much progress has been made under this NWC and that is why we are solidly behind Oshiomhole. He has revived the party and has turned it to a winning machine”, they added.

The statement further reads; “It is obvious that few persons who are not happy are those who felt they are bigger than the party and goodness, we have a chairman that will call a spade a spade no matter who ox is gored. As we speak today, APC is more united than ever under Oshiomhole and that is why we have witnessed progression in the policies of the party and government in power.

“We want to tell the world that this man called Salihu Lukman is an enemy of the APC and he is being sponsored by some anti-democrats who are bent on creating a crisis in the party for their selfish interest.

But we want to reiterate our support to the National Chairman and once again pass a VOTE OF CONFIDENCE on the National Chairman of our great party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

We use this opportunity to warn troubleshooters and those sponsoring people like Salihu Lukman to cause disaffection in the party, to desist from it because as chairmen of APC in the states, we can authoritatively say that it is the first time that states are given financial support during our elections. It happened in the past 2019 general elections. All the states were supported financially by the NWC to ensure the success of our party during the general elections.

“We urged all party leaders to support the NWC and our President, Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that the APC which is enjoying immeasurable support from Nigerians achieves its goals in terms of fixing the economy, the war against corruption and defeating terrorist in the North East”. (Vanguard)

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