The clash between leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has taken a disturbing dimension on Monday when the ruling party’s National Working Committee (NWC) told aggrieved members in clear terms to join the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), just as it accused the immediate past National chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun, of accommodating impunity in the party.

APC Party spokesperson Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu insisted that the NWC under Oyegun’s watch lacked the courage required to confront the pockets of political despots who would not operate by the party’s rules, insisting that the NWC that led the party into the 2015 general elections and continued till June 2018 did nothing different from what is obtainable in the PDP.

The APC further argued that certain peculiar issues resulted in the opposition party taking over states like Oyo, Imo, Bauchi, Adamawa, and Zamfara, adding that it has nothing to do with voters preferring the PDP.

“I would put the painful outcomes broadly under two reasons. One is indiscipline on the part of some members of our party in most of the states. The second reason is that the party leadership did not do much between 2015 and 2018 to move the party from being an amalgam of different political parties to become a truly blended progressive political party.

“We expect members who have different agendas to join their kind in PDP. We will welcome with open arms those who share our progressive ideals, so that by 2022 we will have a party whose members are truly progressives,” the APC spokesman said.

Firing a direct canon at the Oyegun-led NWC, Onilu insisted that it had accommodated impunity, which resulted in widespread indiscipline across party ranks, making certain members superior to the party; lack of respect for party supremacy and overall inability to align the varying interests of the legacy parties that came together to form the APC in 2014.

The ruling party further argued that the PDP bounced back not because it changed its ways or did anything different, but because the APC under Oyegun did not live up to expectations.

“You would recall that it was under that leadership that some impudent members of APC called the bluff of the party by imposing themselves on the National Assembly as leaders contrary to the position of the party. Where was the party? Where was the discipline when this happened? It would be difficult to calculate what lack of courage to assert the party supremacy cost APC over that period.

“The consequences of the inaction of the party were unimaginable. We all saw the consequences on governance as the National assembly practically held our government to ransom. The impunity, which President Muhammadu Buhari has rightly described as lack of patriotism, constituted an unfortunate hindrance to the smooth running of government.

“The leadership under Oyegun, with due respect to him, condoned all sorts of acts of indiscipline from certain members. It is not surprising that the current NWC inherited such a huge mess, where the party was struggling to differentiate itself from the delinquent PDP. We all know that PDP was practically dead following the devastating defeat of 2015. The PDP bounced back not because the party has changed its insidious way or did anything different, but because APC did not live up to expectations.

“It goes without saying that when an organisation is unable to enforce its own rules, it would suffer the consequences sooner than later. We should not be ashamed to say that our partys leadership under Oyegun lacked the courage required to confront the pockets of political despots who could not operate by the party’s rules,” the statement from Issa-Onilu read.

where all of us would be subject to our party’s rules and conventions. We understand that impunity can provide temporary advantage and even successes.

“But ultimately, those successes would be short-lived. PDP is a living example of the inherent calamity of impunity. The PDP era brought calamity to the country and ultimately led to the loss of power. What I read from that letter is a call to continue along that trend. With due respect, that is not what APC stands for,” Issa-Onilu stated.