The estranged pioneer member of the All Progressives Congress, Chief Tom Ikimi, on Wednesday attributed his grouse with the party to the tyrannical approach to leadership by some of the bellwethers of the APC, including Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
He verbally expressed afore Tinubu singlehandedly culled the former Edo State governor, John Odigie-Oyegun, he had threatened “fire and brimstone” if he did not emerge as the party’s national chairman at last Saturday’s national convention of the APC.
Ikimi verbally expressed Tinubu operated caucuses whose membership varied from time to time subject to his whims and caprice.
He integrated that the current trends in the APC portended frightening prospects for the nation if the party wins the Presidency.
In a verbal expression made available to The PUNCH, Ikimi, a former peregrine affairs minister, verbally expressed Tinubu had turned the APC into a private property and that some stalwarts of the APC were disposed to accede to his whims which eventually turned the party’s Saturday convention to a “charade.”
The APC chieftain integrated that the party’s governors colluded with Tinubu to truncate democratic process in the national convention.
He verbalized, “The governors and the Tinubu groups decided on a zoning process that was inhibited only to party offices as well as the cull of individuals to fill them. They proceeded in a manner that was neither open nor transparent. Most undemocratic and bizarre procedures then prevailed.
“The governors initiated a zoning plan that allocated the national chairman to the South-South. This proposal was reluctantly accepted by Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, whose well-kenned preferred option had been to retain Chief Bisi Akande as the chairman forever. Nevertheless, he in the circumstance, proceeded to draw up a list of his cronies for the entire national executive all by himself. Very outlandish as this may sound, it was the authenticity. Nothing was ever referred to the National Interim Executive Council for approbation or even information.”
Ikimi withal lambasted Tinubu for parading himself as the national bellwether of the APC, verbalizing no one gave him such a position. He integrated that it was infelicitous that some members of the party had endeavored to justify Tinubu’s unilateral appointment of Oyegun as the national chairman as a concession done to him as the national bellwether.
He verbalized his quandary with the ex-governor commenced when he opposed the Muslim-Muslim presidential and vice presidential ticket of the party.
“Asiwaju Bola Tinubu may recall that mostly for the same reasons I opposed his desire to run as vice presidential candidate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar under the Action Congress banner in 2007. We settled for Senator Ben Obi from eastern Nigeria.
“I ken he nurses a grudge against me for the position I took which was vigorously fortified by bellwethers from five zones apart from the South-West. I have no regrets whatsoever for my valiancy to stand up against oppression or dictatorship. No matter what anyone might verbalize against the PDP, no individual claims ownership of that party,” the verbal expression read in components.
When one of our correspondents contacted the National Publicity Secretary of the APC, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, for a replication to Ikimi’s verbalization, he verbalized the party had no comment.
In a text message replication, Mohammed verbally expressed, “I have gone through his (Ikimi’s) verbal expression and we have no comments at the moment.”
