Mr Olisaemeka Akamukale, a member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Board of Trustees (BoT), says the party is not behind Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) legal tussles.
Akamukale said this while fielding questions from newsmen at APC’s National Secretariat on Wednesday in Abuja.
He said that the ruling party had no reason to be behind the conflicting court orders and would appreciate if there was a vibrant opposition.
He said, ”Ali Modu Sheriff was with us in ANPP until we formed APC; he left to PDP and was celebrated. We have no reason to be behind it.
”The problem with PDP is that they want to put money where they did not harvest. They should look for their founding fathers.
”It is better we have a strong opposition. We don’t need a crisis in the PDP to win landslide again in 2019.
”We don’t need Ali Modu Sheriff; he contested in Borno and lost even among the grassroots. We don’t need him; that umbrella has torn.
”They should go back and form a new party, not using wasted pipeline. It’s a lesson for APC to learn.
”They became like emperors; undemocratic principles, rule of law was trampled; see the Port Harcourt saga, they just disgraced themselves.
”Nigerians need a viable opposition. For us as it stands now, APC is the only party. It is not good for Nigeria; bury the umbrella and present a formidable opposition.”
The BoT member said that Modu Sheriff was not a man ”to be used and dumped.
“When they brought him, they were happy; they used his money, and now they have used him and want to dump him. The Sheriff I know will not succumb.”
He urged all those, who worked to make APC a reality and were impatient with President Muhammadu Buhari’s appointments into boards to be patient.
”I agree that people are impatient with the president and are still waiting out there to be compensated. I’m sure it would soon be addressed, but I urge that we be patient.
”I do not think that it is because we do not have a BoT that we have problems.
”The only thing I will agree is that the BoT is the only board inaugurated to settle conflicts within the party.
”For instance, this padding issue has nothing to do with the APC; as far as I’m concerned, it should be investigated.
”The party will not shield someone that commits a crime.”
He expressed the wish that he would not want the APC to become a ”four-year dream” but the party that would deliver the dividends of democracy to Nigerians.
Akamukale was the chairman of defunct Democratic Peoples Party, one of the five political parties that merged to form the APC. (NAN)