The leadership virtues of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomole, were extolled on Friday by the Unity Group of the party in Abuja, which also demanded Oshiomhole’s continued stay in office.
Decked in various ceremonial uniforms, members of the group trooped to the APC National Secretary, Wuse II, Abuja in buses with placards bearing various inscriptions relating to their demand that the APC National Chairman should maintain his seat.
Organisers and members of the group had arrived at the national secretariat of the party as early as 8:30 am to drum support for Oshiomhole in apparent response to the anti-Oshiomhole protests staged by some youths on Monday and Tuesday.
Addressing newsmen, a leader of the group, Hon. Folorunso Olusola Emmanuel, said they were at the party’s secretariat in solidarity with the national chairman of the party.
According to him, “the national chairman is on a mission and he should be left to do the job.”
Berating those calling for his removal, Emmanuel said no patriotic party member would want Oshiomole removed.
He insisted that those behind the call for his sack were agents sponsored by the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to destroy the ruling party.
“Our national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomole, should be left alone to do the job he is here to do. We are not going to allow our detractors to distract him. We the real members of APC are solidly behind our national chairman,” he said.
In her own submission, the Iyaloja of Abuja and the woman leader of the group, Chief (Mrs.) Rose Badmus, said that all patriotic party members believe in the leadership the national chairman has provided the party since he came on board and cautioned that parochial interests of the few should not be allowed to truncate the gains made so far.
While she admitted that like any other political party, the ruling APC may have its own share of challenges, she argued that the achievements the party has recorded under the leadership of Oshiomole outweighs the challenges, hence “the leadership of Oshiomole should be sustained”.
She faulted those calling for his removal, maintaining that the call was nothing but “a deliberate and calculated attempt to distract the focused national chairman.”
According to her, “telling Oshiomole to go now is not the way. There is a procedure for change. When it is time for election, if anybody is interested in that position, such a person can contest at the national convention; not trying to remove the National Chairman through the back door.
“Right now, what we are saying is that Comrade Adams Oshiomole must stay. That is our stand.”
The inscriptions on some of the placards include ‘Oshiomole is on a mission’; ‘Give him chance’; ‘Keep up the good work’; ‘Osho Baba’; ‘Performance must be the only standard for assessment’; ‘Allow the Chairman to sanitise the party and ‘Sorry for the distraction, we acknowledge your achievements, Osho Baba.’
Other placards read: ‘Elite gang-up against Oshiomole won’t work,; ‘Buhari, save our party before they destroy it’; ‘Oshiomole is a leader we trust and ‘Osho Baba, continue with the good work.’
One of the leaders of the group, Mr. Jonathan Adegoke, later presented a formal letter of solidarity and support to the national chairman of the party.
The letter was received on behalf of Oshiomole by the Acting Director of Administration at the party’s secretariat, Hon. Salihu Abdulsalam Danimoh.
Receiving the letter, Hon. Danimoh appreciated the group for peacefully conducting itself, noting that the party had inaugurated a national reconciliation committee under the leadership of Chief Bisi Akande, the party’s former interim national chairman.
“With this committee in place, party members have a window to express their grievances for amicable settlement in line with the party’s constitution.”
A build-up to yesterday’s rally was the posting on Thursday of pro-Oshiomole posters around the major streets of the capital city and roads leading to the party Secretariat by a group called APC Integrity Group.
The posters which bore the pictures of President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osibajo and the national chairman of APC, had the inscription of “Mega rally in support of the dogged National Chairman, Adams A. Oshiomole”.