The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, has offered an explanation as to why only members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) appeared to be targeted in the ongoing anti-corruption war, saying that it was because the opposition party occupied power at the centre in the last 16 years.
Emerging from APC’s National Working Committee (NWC) meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Monday night, he told State House correspondents that it was natural that those who were in power would be the ones to answer questions on their stewardship.
He said the war had nothing to do with political divide but would be fought not minding whose ox is gored.
He stated: “The APC is not in any way apologetic. We promised change and there is a lot of rot in the system. This must be cleansed any whoever and whatever ox is being gored, wherever the tree is going to fall, let it be.
“We must get used to the fact that in the process of cleansing this nation, there is going to be a lot of bullets to bite.
“The APC was not in office at national level in the last 10 to 16 years. So, the issue of whether somebody is PDP or not PDP does not arise. We have a nation to cleanse. The president has committed himself to that and we should do it whatever way it comes. We are not being apologetic about that at all.
“It has nothing to do with witch-hunting. It just happened that the dramatist personal of the period all happened to be on one side of the political divide.”
On members of the opposition defecting to the ruling party, he denied that it was a ploy to make Nigeria a one-party state as he added that the APC would welcome to its fold anyone who could help it to advance its vision.
Odigie-Oyegun revealed that the national leadership of the APC discussed the state of the nation with the president and the upcoming elections in different states of the federation.
According to him, the meeting “has been a normal interactive meeting. We were here to brief the president on the state of the party, the challenges that we are facing, the numerous elections that we have to face in the next two, three months.
“As of today, we have 78 elections to contend with mostly arising from court actions following the national elections. We also took the opportunity to be briefed on the state of the nation and the great work the administration is doing in the face of very, very intense challenges to tackle these issues and these problems.
“So, we are going away fulfilled, happy that government has substantially blocked the leakages in the system. There is still a lot to be done and we are looking forward to the early passage of the budget so that full implementation will begin.”
