Oyegun to Tinubu: You can’t remove me on pages of newspapers …denies sponsoring protests against Tinubu

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By; SUNDAY ODE, Abuja.
National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun on Tuesday faulted the call for his resignation by the former Lagos State Governor, Ahmed Bola Tinubu.
According to the APC boss who said Tinubu was harsh on him by that statement, the procedures for the removal of party functionary were clearly spelt out in tthe party’s statutes.
Tinubu who is also the National Leader of the APC had last week called for Oyegu’s resignation, accusing him of mishandling the party’s governorship primary election that produced Rotimi Akeredolu as candidate for the election scheduled for November.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, Oyegun said the seeming dispute between Tinubu and him arose out difference of opinions and perceptions.
 
He said: “There is no rift with Asiwaju. We have difference of opinion, difference of perception and I think that is normal. Yes I agree that the nature of the statement was a bit harsh.
 
“The method of getting rid of a national chairman, if that is what I will call it, are spelt out in the constitution, they don’t take place on the pages of newspapers.”
 
He also stated that there would be no going back on the outcome of the Ondo governorship primary in spite of the controversy.
 
“It’s only INEC that can make U-turn on Ondo,” the APC boss stated.
 
Chief Oyegun also denied any involvement in the protests by some party youth at the national headquarters of the APC in Abuja on Tuesday over allegations of high handedness against Tinubu.
 
“God forbid, anybody who knows me knows that that is not my style. I’m equally shocked and I’m going to look into it and find out why and who is behind it,” according to him.
 
Oyegun siad he had had a long relationship with Tinubu wondering why people should express surprise at seeing them together at a public function.
 
He said: “Do they know how far back our association goes? Do they know that we were in the trenches together in the NSDECO days? Why can’t people who have mutual respect for each other have different opinions? All we hard was difference of opinions, yes it was expressed a bit harshly but that doesn’t remove the basic fact that we have worked together for a very long time.”
 
On the Edo governorship election won by his party last week, Oyegun said it was a referendum which had shown that Nigerian, in spite of the economic recession still had confidence in the leadership of President Buhari.
 
 
“Well it was a hard fought election that was clear. Two things really, it was more of a referendum first on the performance of the governor, second on the quality of our candidate and most importantly, given the economic situation it was an opportunity for us to measure the continued popularity and acceptability of our president. And what it indicated is that by and large the people of this country still have faith, confidence in the fact that if there is any one man that can fix their situation it is President Muhammadu Buhari,” he submitted.

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