Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, has said that the APC leadership will rather ignore members of the Reformed-APC than be bothered by their action.
He stated this on Friday in Abuja when Chairmen of the defunct Congress for Progressives Congress (CPC) paid him a visit at the party`s national secretariat.
He, however, added that the party`s leadership would only attend to its members with genuine grievances with a view to addressing them.
Oshiomhole who is just two-week-old in office, was rattled on Wednesday when some members of the party pulled out to form the Reformed All Progressives Congress (R-APC), a parallel structure.
The group, which has all members of defunct nPDP and some APC members in its fold, is led by former National Secretary of defunct CPC, Alhaji Buba Galadima.
Galadima claimed that the APC Constitution had been eroded and its recent congresses and National Convention were not transparent.
“We listened to Buba Galadima. It is as if a very hungry bird is dancing at the centre of the road and a disgruntled drummer not far away in the bush is drumming for him.
“But this is not to say that we are not aware that there are challenges here and there, but anything about APC is considered more, much more than the sum total of all the challenges we have in many of the states.
“And by the special grace of God, we shall overcome them and we are already overcoming them, I am very confident that we can afford to ignore Buba Galadima, “ Oshiomhole said.
He re-emphasised that he was ready to go to any length to talk to people who meant well and who had genuine grievances against the party.
Such grievances, he noted, may have arisen from communication gaps or misunderstanding or even from error of judgment on the part of anyone or even from the way the party managed things.
“Protests like these are acknowledged and we are working to resolve them, when we see people who have genius grievances, we are not ashamed to talk to them.
“We recognise that democracy is an equaliser and only people who are humble enough to engage can survive and we have been engaging, “ the APC national chairman said.
He added that the party`s leadership had been meeting with various individuals and groups who had genuine concerns on certain matters.
He hinted that progress was being made, but said that the party`s leadership knew those who do not mean well for the party, when such persons were seen.
“There are a lot of idle people who don’t have any other thing to do and once they don’t have access to national honey pot, they begin to complain.
“For me, there is no cause for alarm, nobody should panic over one Buba Galadima, whose group, I believe cannot define us in the next election in 2019.
“Nigerians are wiser. They know that corruption is fighting back and that President Muhammadu Buhari’s resolve to fight corruption must elicit a counter force and that force must find attraction in some people,“ he said.
Oshiomhole maintained that the APC would however, not be distracted by such persons, adding that President Buhari should not be distracted too.
He stressed that the President must remain focused and sustain the fight against corruption.
“I believe the rebellion will be crushed using the superior power of argument and persuading our people not to forget in a hurry where we are coming from,“ he said.
Leader of the defunct CPC state chairmen, Alhaji Umar Shuaibu said they were at the party secretariat to pledge their support to the Oshiomhole-led newly elected National Working Committee (NWC) of the APC.
He maintained that President Buhari has done enough for the country to deserve re-election in 2019, adding that Nigerians should keep faith with the Federal Government and refuse to be distracted.
(NAN)
