An All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain and member of the defunct Presidential Campaign Council for Asiwaju Bola Tinubu in 2023, Jesutega Onokpasa, has again lamented the ruling party’s sharp division, what he called pull-him-down syndrome, and bad blood.
He warned that it was high time the alleged gang-up against those who played critical roles in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s emergence stopped.
Onokpasa, a staunch supporter of Tinubu, claimed that some individuals in the party and within Tinubu’s government were not relenting in their plot against former governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello and his Kaduna State counterpart, Malam Nasir el-Rufai.
The APC chieftain warned some of Tinubu’s appointees, who he said were using the instrument of power against Bello and El-Rufai, to desist. He said the contributions and support of the former governors in the party’s victory were unquantifiable.
In a video clip lamenting the current ordeals of the national chairman of APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, and his family members, Onokpasa said Ganduje was a victim of political vendetta, noting that it was terrible that members of the same political party could tear themselves up to the advantage of the opposition.
He took a swipe at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) leadership for its approach to Bello and for allegedly applying double standards in the former governor’s case, describing the anti-graft body as the most corrupt institution in the country.
Onokpasa, a lawyer and chieftain of the APC, while addressing members and supporters of APC in the video clip said, “Seriously, what do we think we are doing to ourselves in this party? I think we all have to sit back and start reasoning deeply because right now, we are misbehaving. We are tearing ourselves apart while those in opposition are regrouping against us.
“So, we should all gang up against Yahaya Bello? Should we all gang up against Nasir el-Rufai? The other day, Sam wrote the article ‘Like Father, Like Fraud’. I mean, you will attack the father and attack the son? Isn’t that the rubbish that Atiku Abubakar was doing the other day? Attacking our president’s children. He will attack the father and attack the children?”
“What is Sam’s contribution to Asiwaju becoming President? Nothing! What is Nasir Rufai’s contribution? Unquantifiable. I was there. What is Yahaya Bello’s contribution? Unquantifiable. I was there. Some people just feel because they have differences with people, they will use the instrumentality of power to attack party members?
“We are falling apart like this. We won with less than 40 percent of the votes. We won by God’s grace because it is God’s will for Asiwaju Tinubu to become our president and that is how we won. Then, as we are, the next thing we will start doing is to start ganging up against one another in our party?
That he (Bello) will pass through the backdoor? To do what? They (EFCC) want to collect money from Yahaya Bello. It is not fighting any corruption. You think it is everybody you can shake down? Come and shake me down,” he dared the commission.
He insisted that Bello and El-Rufai did not deserve the persecution they were currently experiencing, warning that the APC might fall apart if persecution and pulling down of members are not checked.
“We are just tearing ourselves apart while our opponents gather themselves together. Yahaya Bello and Nasir el-Rufai are our brothers; they stood with us when it mattered most. They stood with Asiwaju, and I love them for doing that, and I am not abandoning them. That is not how we live life. People who specialise in that nonsense that is their headache. That is not how we are brought up; we just stab ourselves in the back. We are falling apart like this. I don’t see how this helps us at all.
“All this ‘dem say dem say’; we cannot run a government based on ‘dem say’. Many people in this administration are carried away with transient power. It will come to an end. Were there no other people before us? People will still come and replace us. Stop scattering our party; stop tormenting our members, our brothers, because you want to collect money from them. I urge all my fellow Progressives to support our president, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.
“These people are not interested in helping our President reduce inflation, to stabilise prices and make him popular. No! But all these useless people are looking for is how to collect money and how to bad-mouth people. Then they start giving opportunities that ought to come to our genuine supporters to PDP and even Obidients,” he lamented.