APC deputy national chairman wants Oshiomhole out

The deputy chairman (North) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Lawal Shuaibu, has called for the resignation of the party’s chairman, Adams Oshiomhole.

In a letter to the chairman dated May 27, 2019, the top official declared Mr Oshiomhole’s leadership a “failure”.

Mr Shuaibu, a former senator from Zamfara State, said the party chairman was squarely responsible for the party’s loss in his home state.

The Supreme Court on Friday ended a winding legal tussle on the emergence of APC’s candidates for various posts in Zamfara state.

The court invalidated votes cast for the party in the elections and directed the electoral body, INEC, to recognise the runner-ups for various positions.

Mr Shuaibu, in a five-page open letter, said Mr Oshiomhole caused the party to lose the seats.

He also listed other dwindling fortunes of the party, which he said “is on the path of extinction”, to buttress his claims.

“We had 23 states in 2015 but after the elections we lost 7 states. We also had 60 senators in 2015, at the end of the election count we end up with 57 in 2019,” Mr Shuaibu wrote.

He said with the party’s decline under his leadership, Mr Oshiomhole should not be prompted before he bows out.

“In advanced democracies, people who fail to add value or build over what they met on assumption of duty show some civilised example, they honourably bow out,” he wrote.

A spokesperson for the party, Lanre Issa-Onilu, said he could not comment since the letter was not addressed to the party.

Mr Oshiomhole’s spokesperson, Simon Ebegbulem, did not respond to phone calls and a text message to his phone on Tuesday.

Read full text of the letter: