(Edo North Senator Adams Oshiomhole. Photo by PM News)
Edo North Senator Adams Oshiomhole has given his account of the circumstances surrounding his removal as national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking during a television interview, Oshiomhole said his sack was effected via a Zoom meeting held at the Aso Rock Villa.
He credited his own competence and strategic input for the APC’s success in the 2015 presidential election under the late President Muhammadu Buhari, saying that he and his colleagues on the National Working Committee (NWC) had also successfully resolved leadership disputes in both chambers of the National Assembly without requiring the president to personally intervene, as the NWC had handled the necessary marketing, persuasion, and political management.
He claimed that once the system had stabilised, he was removed through a Zoom session, after attempts to remove him through conventional democratic processes failed.
According to him, his opponents instead relied on a petition allegedly signed by eight members of his ward, claiming they had passed a vote of no confidence in him, and used this as grounds to approach the courts, which initially granted an interim order in their favour.
Oshiomhole said he appealed the decision, and the Court of Appeal quashed the order, only for the same court to reinstate it three weeks later.
He said it was shortly after this reversal that a National Executive Council (NEC) meeting was, for the first time, convened via Zoom at the villa.