The Imo State Governor, Rochas Okorocha, has lamented that the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has already lost five million votes because of the leadership style of the party’s
Okorocha alleged that the APC had lost about five million voters due to Oshiomole’s highhandedness.
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Okorocha, made the accusations shortly after meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Okorocha who had voiced his bitterness at the outcome of the party primaries in Imo State said he discovered that Oshiomole’s actions were without the support of the President.
He said further that his investigations had revealed that there was no directive from the President for the party chairman to act illegally as witnessed in a number of states.
Okorocha also said he realised that the national chairman was never instructed to replace candidates who won primary elections with others who did not win as he urged Oshiomole to respect the rule of law and obey court orders.
“This issue of treating court orders as tissue papers must stop. It doesn’t reflect the image of our party. Oshiomhole must act quickly to fix the integrity of this party because his coming in ought to have brought joy into the party and not sadness,” Okorocha said.
The governor said however that in spite of his grievances, the APC would not disintegrate as long as Buhari remained the party leader.
“APC will not disintegrate for as long as the person, Muhammadu Buhari is still the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and remains the leader of this party.
We cannot give that credit to the chairman. He cannot disintegrate this party, the party is still intact, just that many people are hurt.
Since his inception and after these primaries, we are losing almost five million voters because of anger, protest everywhere and he needs to be called to order.
He has to respect the rule of law, respect court orders and do the right thing – obey court orders where applicable and not turn himself into INEC.”
Speaking on the outcome of the party primaries in his state, Okorocha said it was not possible for the party to replace his son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, with Senator Hope Uzodinma as the party’s governorship candidate in the state.
“He cannot be standing on Hope Uzodinma because that man did not win election. You cannot compare somebody who won 265,000 votes with somebody who won 7,000 votes.
He (Hope Uzodinma) never won election and you cannot impose a candidate who is unacceptable to the people on the people. That is how serious the matter is now.
So, he (Oshiomhole) should do the right thing and I have advised him many times to do the right thing before he creates more disaffections in our party,” he concluded