The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr Adams Oshiomhole, says the APC will take action against the parties using President Muhammadu Buhari’s photographs for their campaigns.
Oshiomhole said this on ‘The Platform’, a programme on TVC on Saturday while reacting to the crisis in the party’s chapters in Ogun and Imo states.
He said the APC would write a letter of complaint to the Independent National Electoral Commission on the matter.
The governor of Ogun State, Ibikunle Amosun and his Imo State counterpart, Rochas Okorocha, had said they would continue to support Buhari but would work against the governorship candidates of the APC in their states.
Both governors were prevented from fielding their preferred candidates in the 2019 governorship elections in their states.
Although Amosun has remained in the APC, his candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, is contesting on the platform of the Allied People’s Movement while Okorocha’s candidate and son-in-law, Uche Nwosu, is contesting on the platform of Action Alliance.
Oshiomhole said, “If there is a person, including a governor, who wants to sell a distorted message, the party will stop him. That is the truth. We have also seen some situations which we are trying to draw the attention of INEC to as the regulator of political parties. You cannot have anyone putting the portrait of President Muhammadu Buhari as President and his own portrait as the governorship candidate on the platform of a political party that is not known to the people.”
The APC chairman also expressed his disgust over the refusal of the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mr Yakubu Dogara, to step down despite defecting to the Peoples Democratic Party.
He maintained that the APC remained the dominant party in the parliament, but not in control.
Oshiomhole, however, said removing Saraki and Dogara was no longer the priority of the ruling party.
Meanwhile, Okorocha has said he did not take the national chairman of the APC seriously again.
Okorocha, who was reacting to the statements made against him by Oshiomhole during a rally in Owerri on Friday, said he would not be distracted by Oshiomhole from ensuring victory for Buhari in 2019.
The governor, in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, insisted that the governorship candidate of the APC in the state, Senator Hope Uzodinma, did not have the capacity to garner the kind of support that would make him win the governorship election next year.
There are also indications that the national leadership of the APC has been under “intense pressure” to expel Okorocha and Amosun over alleged anti-party activities.
The two governors are believed to be close to President Muhammadu Buhari.
