Why I Was Removed As APC Chairman – Adams Oshiomhole

“Some of the governors told me to my face that, yes, they have no problem with me. They are happy because I have no problem with them either. But they believed that if I remained as chairman, I would influence the leaders of the party as to who would emerge as the presidential candidate on the APC platform.

“At that time, the APC had different factions. Many of the governors wanted to become president. I mean, Amaechi wanted to be president. Of course, you also know the former vice president was also contesting. There were quite a number of them like that and they had their supporters.

“What these various factions had in common was the contest for presidential aspiration. They all had divergent views as to who they were supporting, but they all came to the wrong conclusion that if I remained chairman, in their judgment I was too smart and I would impose a presidential candidate.

“Every effort I made to explain that no chairman can do that did not convince them. On that basis, they could not get the two-thirds majority required to remove a national chairman who was elected, because I was elected at a convention of about 7,000 delegates at Eagle Square.

“So they went to one Justice Senchi and claimed that eight members of my ward wrote a letter saying they had no confidence in me. On that basis—

“Eight members? Yes, eight members from my ward. Those eight cannot even remove a ward chairman. But they took that to court and obtained an order from Justice Senchi.

You know the judiciary — you scandalize the entire system, everybody has to answer his father’s name. Justice Senchi, on the strength of a so-called vote of no confidence signed only by eight out of 27 ward executives, granted an ex parte order that I should stop parading myself as chairman pending the determination of the motion on notice.

Between then, I went to the Court of Appeal. The Court of Appeal set aside Justice Senchi’s judgment. When the pressure persisted, the Court of Appeal summoned another panel and composed another panel. I remember someone told me it was impossible, but they sat and said they had reviewed themselves and now upheld Justice Senchi’s order.

“Once they did that, within seven days — that was during the coronavirus period — they had a Zoom meeting at the Villa. Whenever the government has meetings at the State House Executive Council Chambers, that’s where the meeting was held. I was not invited. There was no query. The rules are clear.

“They then said they had removed me and dissolved the entire National Working Committee that I led. That is why, if I am a senator today, it is because many people asked me to go to court after they removed me. I told my lawyer it was not worth it. I said let them have their party.

“For me, the APC did it for me to become chairman. I remember that the former president, President Buhari, said in 2016 when he came to Edo: ‘We need you in Abuja. APC needs you in Abuja.’ Subsequently, about a week later, I visited him and he said, ‘I want you to come and lead the APC, otherwise we should forget about the 2019 election. We need you.’

“That was how I got involved as chairman. It was never in my estimation. Again, I have told people that what you become in life is not so much what you pray for, it is what God has willed for you.

“I found myself as chairman, and then people thought they would use me. By my very nature, I cannot be used, but I can be useful.”