The national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has brushed off reports that he was compromised in his management of the party saying such persons were themselves without conscience and that they would soon eat their own words.
Oyegun said this yesterday in a meeting with delegation of South-South/ Southeast Professionals evidently responding to the assertions made by his predecessor, Chief Bisi Akande against his management of the party.
Trouncing the party’s national leadership in a letter released on Monday, Akande had said that the leadership is not capable of resolving the crisis plaguing the party.
According to Vanguard, the chairman however reacted and stressed that during his years in civil service and private business, no amount of monetary inducement would make him to compromise his hard earned reputation. He further said that in the light of such utterances of allegations and indictment, he cannot be deprived of his sleep.
Oyegun stated that “there is nothing they have not said about me but when you ask what has the man done, one of their reports said the present executive cannot win us elections in 2019! Good Lord! You’ve not even finished with 2015, you’re talking about 2019. They also talked about the elites of the North against the people of the Southwest. Am I from the North? Am I the one organising them?
“The one that annoys me is the attempt to rubbish 75 solid years of a character that I’ve put together. They said I took gratification, gratification to what purpose? The only people who can say that are the people who don’t know my background or history.
“I was just over 30 when I started joining teams that were buying aircraft from Holland and Seattle in United States. That could not corrupt me. I was on the board of the Railways, NPA and the rest of them. If all these did not make me corrupt, how can I at 76 take money, money from who? To do what?
“I was chairman of FHA. Let them go and check the record. I did not award a single piece of land to myself or to any member of my family. What they call Satellite Town today, myself and Fola Alade went out physically inspecting land for building low cost housing and we finally settled for low cost houses at Badagry. I would have settled for a piece of land. I could have acquired acres of land and the compensation government was paying would have covered that.
“Out of love for my country and democracy and resistance to the continuation of military rule, I was on exile for four years during which my economic base was totally obliterated. By the time I came back, I was barely carrying a dead bone.”
“Obasanjo is a close friend. Throughout his eight years tenure, I didn’t enter Aso Rock to curry favour. That is the kind of person I am. When they say I’m taking money from a senator, to do what? I am not a senator. I cannot vote. I cannot by being chairman pronounce him as Senate President or Senate Leader.
“So, what is he giving me money for? How many people know me personally? It is annoying. It is dirty. It is crude. It is unbecoming and it can only be people who are totally devoid of conscience at any level of humanity that can do things of that nature.
“It doesn’t make me lose sleep because I have God who is so protective of me that the people who have done this thing will eventually eat their own words. I have no doubt about that.”
Meanwhile, Emeka Ugwu-Oju, president of the professionals, during the visit pledged the forum’s unalloyed support to the embattled chairman of the APC.
“We have come to pay our respect and show solidarity to the chairman of the party whose integrity and hard work has stirred the party to victory in the space of one year he assumed the chairmanship position of the party,”Emeka stated.
The chairman has on another ground called on the different factions in the National Assembly to get together and resolve its crisis.
The crisis rocking the APC started when Senator Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central – APC) was elected the Senate president after being adopted by the PDP senators, while Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP emerged as the deputy Senate president.
Meanwhile, the leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has vowed not to recognise the newly sworn in Senate president.
Also, Saraki and Dogara, failed to read the party’s list of candidates sent to both chambers of NASS as regards its choice for other principal officers. The leadership of the party was surprised that its preferred candidates were rejected.
Trouncing the party’s national leadership in a letter released on Monday, Akande had said that the leadership is not capable of resolving the crisis plaguing the party.
According to Vanguard, the chairman however reacted and stressed that during his years in civil service and private business, no amount of monetary inducement would make him to compromise his hard earned reputation. He further said that in the light of such utterances of allegations and indictment, he cannot be deprived of his sleep.
Oyegun stated that “there is nothing they have not said about me but when you ask what has the man done, one of their reports said the present executive cannot win us elections in 2019! Good Lord! You’ve not even finished with 2015, you’re talking about 2019. They also talked about the elites of the North against the people of the Southwest. Am I from the North? Am I the one organising them?
“The one that annoys me is the attempt to rubbish 75 solid years of a character that I’ve put together. They said I took gratification, gratification to what purpose? The only people who can say that are the people who don’t know my background or history.
“I was just over 30 when I started joining teams that were buying aircraft from Holland and Seattle in United States. That could not corrupt me. I was on the board of the Railways, NPA and the rest of them. If all these did not make me corrupt, how can I at 76 take money, money from who? To do what?
“I was chairman of FHA. Let them go and check the record. I did not award a single piece of land to myself or to any member of my family. What they call Satellite Town today, myself and Fola Alade went out physically inspecting land for building low cost housing and we finally settled for low cost houses at Badagry. I would have settled for a piece of land. I could have acquired acres of land and the compensation government was paying would have covered that.
“Out of love for my country and democracy and resistance to the continuation of military rule, I was on exile for four years during which my economic base was totally obliterated. By the time I came back, I was barely carrying a dead bone.”
“Obasanjo is a close friend. Throughout his eight years tenure, I didn’t enter Aso Rock to curry favour. That is the kind of person I am. When they say I’m taking money from a senator, to do what? I am not a senator. I cannot vote. I cannot by being chairman pronounce him as Senate President or Senate Leader.
“So, what is he giving me money for? How many people know me personally? It is annoying. It is dirty. It is crude. It is unbecoming and it can only be people who are totally devoid of conscience at any level of humanity that can do things of that nature.
“It doesn’t make me lose sleep because I have God who is so protective of me that the people who have done this thing will eventually eat their own words. I have no doubt about that.”
Meanwhile, Emeka Ugwu-Oju, president of the professionals, during the visit pledged the forum’s unalloyed support to the embattled chairman of the APC.
“We have come to pay our respect and show solidarity to the chairman of the party whose integrity and hard work has stirred the party to victory in the space of one year he assumed the chairmanship position of the party,”Emeka stated.
The chairman has on another ground called on the different factions in the National Assembly to get together and resolve its crisis.
The crisis rocking the APC started when Senator Bukola Saraki (Kwara Central – APC) was elected the Senate president after being adopted by the PDP senators, while Ike Ekweremadu of the PDP emerged as the deputy Senate president.
Meanwhile, the leader of the APC, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has vowed not to recognise the newly sworn in Senate president.
Also, Saraki and Dogara, failed to read the party’s list of candidates sent to both chambers of NASS as regards its choice for other principal officers. The leadership of the party was surprised that its preferred candidates were rejected.
