Blessing Agbomhere, the All Progressives Congress (APC) South-South Zonal Organising Secretary, has accused former Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi of conspiring with his associates to thwart Bola Tinubu’s victory in the February 25 presidential election.
According to reports, Agbomhere, who now serves as the party’s Acting Zonal Chairman, claimed that the recently removed Zonal Chairman, Victor Giadom, would no longer hold that position following a vote of no confidence against him and the former zonal secretary, Ita Udosen.
Giadom was fired 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 meetings and other flaws.
The party’s leadership, however, rejected the action taken by Agbomhere and four others, stating that they lacked the constitutional authority to remove zonal officers of the party in a statement issued by the APC National Publicity Secretary, Felix Morka.
In response, Agbomhere spoke to a group of print journalists in Abuja, criticizing the party’s leadership for failing to discipline Amechi and Giadom, whom he claims undermined Tinubu’s campaign.
He also stated that the NWC would form a fact-finding committee to investigate the matter and make a decision on whether to support their position or not.
“The ex-zonal chairman (Giadom) never mobilized for our party, the APC, in the general election,” he claimed. He never backed our candidate. Before the election, Bola Tinubu and Kashim Shettima came to them and begged them to join hands with party members to ensure that they were voted for, knowing that Rotimi Amechi contested the primary election and lost, and that Giadom is his lieutenant. Amechi and Giadom were not party members. They went public, called South-South meetings, and urged people to vote against the APC and for Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party. We believe this is a huge disservice to our party because the APC has done everything for Amechi.
Agbomhere cited Amechi’s remark during the election that the chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission was appointed by President Muhammadu Buhari on the advice of a member of Tinubu’s camp. He also accused Giadom of failing to fulfill his duties as zone chairman and of failing to support Tinubu’s candidacy.
“Do you realize what such statements can do to a party?” “By making that statement, he was ready to incite Nigerians against Bola Tinubu’s candidacy and election,” he added.
“The zonal officers of the South-South had their extraordinary meeting,” Agbomhere continued, “and in that meeting, we are eight officers in the zone, and all of us were present.” The constitution requires us to call a zonal meeting at least once every quarter, and he (Giadom) has not called one for nearly six months. He has been running the party on his own and doing whatever he wants with it. Every attempt to get the secretary to call a meeting was also futile. He and the secretary are running the party together, without the help of the zone’s other six executive members.
“Even after the elections, there have been a slew of petitions and suspensions from across the region’s states.” The zone is supposed to form a committee to receive these petitions, conduct fact-finding to determine what is wrong, and find a way to resolve these issues within the zone, but Giadom has allowed the zone to become engulfed in internal squabbles because he doesn’t care.
“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,” Agbomhere said of Tinubu’s readiness for governance. This is why we will continue to support him. We are prepared to fight anyone who seeks to undermine democracy in Nigeria. This is the first time in Nigerian history that a pure democrat will be elected to the office of President. “Asiwaju is in the league of Obafemi Awolowo and Lee Kuan Yew, not Rotimi Amaechi and Victor Giadom,” Agbomhere said.
