Blessing Agbomhere, the South-South Zonal Organising Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has accused former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amechi, of colluding with his associates to thwart the victory of Bola Tinubu during the February 25 presidential election.
POLITICS NIGERIA reports that Agbomhere, who now serves as the Acting Zonal Chairman of the party, claimed that the recently removed Zonal Chairman, Victor Giadom, would no longer occupy that role after a vote of no confidence was passed against him and the former zonal secretary, Ita Udosen.
Giadom was removed from his post on Sunday after five zonal officers of the party in Port Harcourt accused him and Udosen of running the zone like a personal fiefdom, failing to call for meetings, and other shortcomings.
However, the party’s leadership, in a statement issued by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka, rejected the action taken by Agbomhere and four others, stating that they lacked the constitutional authority to remove zonal officers of the party.
In response, Agbomhere addressed a group of print journalists in Abuja, criticizing the leadership of the party for not disciplining Amechi and Giadom, who he alleges undermined Tinubu’s campaign.
He further indicated that a fact-finding committee would be set up by the NWC, which would investigate the matter and make a pronouncement on whether to support their position or not.
He said, “The ex-zonal chairman (Giadom) never mobilised for our party, the APC in the general election. He never supported our candidate. Before the election, Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima took out time to come to them knowing that Rotimi Amechi contested the primary election and failed and that Giadom is his lieutenant, they were begged to join hands with party members to ensure that they were voted for. Amechi and Giadom did not work for the party. They came out publicly, called meetings in the South-South, and urged people to vote against the APC and vote for Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. We consider this a great disservice to our party because the APC has done everything for Amechi.
Agbomhere singled out Amechi’s comment during the election that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari following a recommendation from a member of Tinubu’s camp. He also accused Giadom of neglecting his responsibilities as the zone’s chairman and failing to support Tinubu’s candidacy.
“Do you know what such statements can cause the party? By that statement, he was ready to incite Nigerians against the candidacy and election of Bola Tinubu,” he added.
Agbomhere added, “The zonal officers of the South-South had their extraordinary meeting, and, in that meeting, we are eight officers in the zone, all of us were present. The constitution requires that we call for a zonal meeting at least once every quarter and for almost six months now, he (Giadom) has not called for a meeting. He has been running the party alone and doing whatever he likes with the party. Every attempt to make the secretary call for a meeting also failed. He and the secretary are running the party together, without carrying the other six executive members of the zone along.
“Even after the elections were over, there have been a series of petitions and suspensions from across the states in the region. The zone is supposed to set up a committee that would receive these petitions, do fact-finding to find out what is wrong and find a way to resolve these issues in the zone but Giadom allowed the zone to be enveloped in internal disputations because he does not care.
On Tinubu’s readiness for governance, Agbomhere said, “despite the fact that I cannot guarantee that Asiwaju can run 100km in an hour, I can confirm that Asiwaju and Shettima have 100 ideas to rescue Nigeria and set her on the path of greatness within the first 100 days in office. This is why we keep supporting him. We are ready to fight anybody bent on frustrating democracy in Nigeria. This is the first time in Nigeria that we will be having a pure democrat coming to occupy the office of the president in Nigeria. Asiwaju is not in the league of Rotimi Amaechi and Victor Giadom; he is in the league of Obafemi Awolowo and Lee Kuan Yew,” Agbomhere said.
