A Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Segun Osinkolu, has declared that any attempt to bring down or rubbish the party’s National Leader, Aiswaju Ahmed Bola Tinubu, will backfire.
Osinkolu, an ex-Senatorial aspirant, advised the party to immediately address the leadership tussle in the National Assembly which, he said, could polarise the party.
The APC chieftain was reacting to the raging imbroglio in the APC since the drama-filled emergence of Senator Bukola Saraki as Senate President and Yakubu Dogara as the Speaker, House of Representatives.
The pair were elected by their colleagues against the party’s purported candidates for the posts, Sen. Ahmed Lawan and Femi Gbajabiamila, respectively.
However, in a statement released in Ado Ekiti on Friday, June 19, Osinkolu said it was “a gross political miscalculation and misdirected act of vengeance” for some of the party leaders to see the impasse as an opportunity to fight Tinubu at the expense of the party.
Consequently, he advised the South-West caucus of the party to not allow itself to be used against Tinubu because of selfish interests of some people outside the zone.
“We are not against the leaderships of Senator Saraki and Hon. Dogara in the National Assembly. They are leaders of our party who deserve to hold any position of their choice as guaranteed by the constitution.
“But we frown at the way some of these leaders have been painting our leader, Senator Bola Tinubu. They craftily painted the entire power struggle to mean a struggle between the APC and Tinubu. This is bad politics and we condemn such in its entirety.
“Any Attempt to bring Tinubu down or rubbish him in APC will backfire. They should not forget that the likes of Saraki, Vice President Atiku Abubakar and the five PDP Governors that defected and helped the APC to win the Presidential poll started like a child’s play before it snowballed into an uncontrollable level. So, the APC must learn from history in order not to fall into the same pit.
“They said Tinubu was the one propping up Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila for Senate Presidency and Speakership positions. Immediately after election, Gbajabiamila congratulated Dogara and promised to work with him. Where then did Tinubu get connected in this matter?
“This issue became worrisome to some of us because the battle is gradually assuming an ethnic colouration even less than one month President Muhammadu Buhari took over as president. People are beginning to insinuate that some people are pursuing ethnic agenda in our party.”
