A vote of confidence was passed in the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday as two groups in the party staged a joint peaceful rally to endorse his continued stay in office.
The two groups are Unity Group of APC and Friends of Oshiomhole in Nigeria.
Banners and placards carrying members of the two groups stormed the national secretariat of the party barely 24 hours after the police averted a bloody clash between two opposing groups who were on protest for and against the national chairman of the party.
As early as 11am, members, who were signing praises of the national chairman, took over the road that leads to the party secretariat to drum up support for the continued stay in office of the national chairman.
Some of the banners and placards read: “No one can pull APC down”, “Godwin Obaseki, stop the pull down syndrome”, “Obaseki, stop creating confusion in our party” and “Oshiomhole means well for the party”.
Other placards read: “We stand with our Chairman”, “Osho Baba must stay”, “We won’t accept negative narratives.” “Oshiomhole we know” and “There is no alternative to Baba Oshiomhole”.
Addressing newsmen after the rally, the leader of the APC Unity Group, Malam Idris Umar Faruk, said all well-meaning party members endorsed the continued leadership being provided for the party by the national chairman.
Faruk, who is also the deputy youth leader of the ruling party in the Federal Capital Territory, berated those calling for the removal of Oshiomhole, arguing that the national chairman has turned the fortunes of the party for good since he assumed leadership.
He noted that aside the sound leadership provided by Oshiomhole, the national chairman has accorded youths more prime positions, stressing that youths occupied more elective offices under the watch of the national chairman.
Faruk insisted that the national chairman has come to stay.
He said: “We are here today as APC members to give support to our national chairman for the good work he has been doing. We want him to continue”, adding that, “whosoever is nursing that the national chairman should go, he or she is nursing their exit from the party”.
Speaking in the same vein, the national publicity secretary of Friends of Oshiomhole in Nigeria, Hon. Folorunso Oluwole Emmanuel, took a swipe at Oshiomhole’s antagonists.
He said: “We are here to say Oshiomhole must stay”.
Describing those opposing the national chairman as “political jobbers.”