By ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja

The All Progressives Congress (APC) South-south stakeholders under the auspices of APC South-South Stakeholders’ Forum, has said that the region is fully in support of the plot for the removal of the party’s national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

Addressing newsmen on behalf of the stakeholders in Abuja, on Monday, Ray Murphy, a former senatorial aspirant and Media Adviser to John Odigie-Oyegun said that the region is fully in support of the emergency National Executive Council (NEC) meeting slated for 17th of March to appoint an Acting National Chairman to replace Oshiomhole.

He dismissed all the claims made by the National Vice Chairman, Hilliard Eta were his personal opinion, insisting that the region’s leaders have resolved that Oshiomhole should be removed.

“We are alarmed at the way and manner our party is losing its brand, integrity, seriousness and this is why we came today as South-south people to urge Nigerians to realise that APC is a party in power and everybody should do everything to support the president to bring good governance to the people.

“And if the party is allowed in the hands of those running down it right now, it will not give Nigerians opportunity to experience good governance that APC promised,” the group noted.

Asked if the stakeholders are in support of the clamour for Oshiomhole to step aside, Murphy said: I am saying that there is a suspension; there is a court order and the reasons for this situation are known to all of us.

“It is in the interest of our party to put Oshiomhole’s era behind it and move forward with new leadership. That is what we are saying.

“This conception of a party being owed by certain persons is completely wrong; we are stakeholders who built the party. We run the party from the structure; we fund it.

“As bonafide stakeholders of South-South origin in APC, for instance, Victor Giadom is from the South-south, he has just called a meeting and some people are opposing that meeting. We are saying by the natural succession, Victor is the right person to call a meeting at this point in time because of a vacuum that exist in the party.

“Without mentioning too many names, I can tell you that practically all the senior stakeholders of the party in government are backing the call for renewal of this party, particularly from the South-south. I don’t need to go into those names, but you know them, you have hear the utterance they have made in the past.

“As citizens of the south South, we know that we are people of excellence and we know that we can do better. As a matter of fact, as you know, there are thousands of very eminently qualified indigenes of the South South in APC who can discharge these functions in a very creditable manner.

“Since our brother, Oshiomhole took over from our elder brother, Odigie-Oyegun, it has been topsy turvy. One crisis after the other generated by the simple inability to run a party with diplomacy and tact.

“The highest levels of leadership require some ability to adumbrate what you say, ability to respect people’s views and opinions. It is not a pugilistic activity to be national chairman of a political party. We are extremely unsatisfied, dissatisfied with the way he has carried on in the last two years since he became our national chairman.

“We lend ourselves seriously with the activities of those who suspended him right from his ward because he has not been carrying on the way we sent him. We read in the media about some people saying that the entire South-south is with him. No, that is not correct.

“That is the kind of dictatorial policy they have been operating. That is not correct. We are not happy with him. We certainly are not satisfied with what went on in the last elections that we took part in, there were low hanging fruits. Akwa Ibom was there. Delta and Cross River States were there and many other places.

“We lost so many states just like Zamfara and others because of the inability of the people who run the party to carry along other people. Primaries were shoddy. Credible people who are capable of winning elections were shut out due to shoddy primaries.

“We support those who want to renew the party. We want a situation where this party gets a new breathe of life. This is not a matter of 2023 as my brother Hilliard Eta has said. It is about the survival of the party.

“Can you imagine a party where somebody sat down and suspended top officials? That is why we have this vacuum. We support the call to NEC by the Acting Secretary, Giadom because that is the only way we can give opportunity to the party to regain itself.

“We ask our people all over the country to lend their support for that meeting. When we hold it, we can now have the opportunity to renew this party and we call on all leaders and members of the party to support this NEC meeting,” the forum quipped. (The Sun)

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