Edo crisis: I want APC to choose their governorship flag bearer – Oshiomhole

The former governor of Edo state and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole, has said that he has nothing against his party members in the state.

He insisted that he was never involved in any intra-party fight and would never insult any member of the APC.

Mr Oshiomhole, who speaking in Edo North on Saturday after some members of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, defected to ruling APC, he said he won’t fight his party members because he is out for unity.

He reacted to the alleged face-off between him and the current Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki.

The alleged face-off had resulted to threat to suspend Oshiomhole from the party at the state level.

Mr Oshiomhole said, he dissipates his energy in fighting the opposition and not his party members.

He said: “The good thing about entertainment is that you choose the kind of entertainment you want but when it comes to rules, they are rigid and they are even enforceable so I think that sooner than later everybody in the APC family will see the futility of fighting one another.

“I never dissipated energy fighting within the party, I was never involved and I will never be involved in intra-party fighting, rather, I reserve my energy for the opposition and once they ring the bell for the contest, I deploy that reserve energy.

“I have not publicly or privately fought or abused any APC leader or member, any ACN leader or member, any AC leader or member.

“That does not mean that a couple of people didn’t do what I didn’t like but I also recognized that that is why we are humans and my responsibility as a leader is to identify those people, bring them, persuade them, caution them where necessary and guide them on how to go forward.”

The APC National Chairman, however, admitted that there was internal quarrel within the party.

Oshiomhole, a former governor of the state recalled how some members of the party burnt cars at Benin airport in a bid to prevent an aircraft he was in from landing.

The APC Chairman, however, harped on the unity of the party.

He added: “There must be disagreement, there must be contests, there must be legitimate divergent views about how to arrive at a destination.

“You know we had an incident like that in Benin when some people just chose to go and buy disused vehicles, put them on the road, burn the asphalt on airport road just because they didn’t want me to land in Benin; what was the purpose of my coming?  To receive more people into our party.

“My language has always been our doors are open, let people who share our ideology come to join us when they do they enjoy all privileges. We have always been receiving people from PDP and my message is the same and it will remain the same whether I am chairman or not.”

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