Return ‘The Crown’ APC Gave You, Oshiomhole Calls For Saraki’s Resignation

The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has called for the immediate resignation of Dr Bukola Saraki as President of the Nigerian Senate.

Oshiomhole, who made the call after a closed-door meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House Wednesday night, said the honorable thing for Mr Saraki to do is to return “the crown in the family it belongs to” after his defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday.

The APC Chairman had met the President alongside Senate Leader, Ahmed Lawan, and some senators elected on the platform the ruling party over the gale of defections currently rocking the party.

Speaking to State House correspondents after the meeting, Oshiomhole said: “Whatever is the reason, we can defect from the party but we can’t defect from Nigeria. The only thing is that there are other consequential issues that every man or woman of honour who had taken such decisions would be expected to follow through.

“I mean you should not collect a crown that belongs to a family and wear it on behalf of the family if for your personal reasons which he has enumerated that he has gone to another family.

“It is just a matter of honour to leave the crown in the house that the crown belongs to.

“As it stands even now, the APC is still the largest party in the Senate. We have 53 senators, that is much more than what the PDP has, or APGA has.

“Nobody in the APC will be surprised about the development. In fact, they have stayed a little bit longer than we thought. Last week, the Kwara State governor said he was leaving but he didn’t say when. So, we are not surprised at all. But these are what I might call temping moments because I had faced similar situations in my state, when people were leaving.

“But the beauty of democracy is that whether big or small, it is one man one vote on election day. There is no difference between a senator, a president, a journalist and any other person.

“In a sense, we have to accept that once a couple for one reason or the other find out that they are not compatible, the only honourable thing is to go.”

Speaking further, the APC Chairman recalled that Mr Saraki, in the statement announcing his defection, admitted that the the party leadership made efforts to reconcile his grievances against the party but noted that the efforts came rather belated.

“But he argued that those efforts came too late. But I couldn’t have started acting before I was born,” said Oshiomhole.

Meanwhile, the ruling party’s call for the Senate President’s resignation from office comes ahead of President Buhari’s 10 working days holiday in the British capital of London starting from Friday.

THE WHISTLER had earlier reported that the President’s bid to take a vacation is coming amidst fears that the APC may lose more of its prominent members in the absence of the President.