WARRI — CHAIRMAN of the Board of Trustees of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), former military Vice President, Admiral Augustus Aikhomu (rtd) says he is dumbfounded by the recent crisis rocking the party, which has resulted in the removal of the national chairman, Chief Don Etiebet.
But former Senate Chief Whip and member of the party’s erstwhile national caretaker committee, Senator Roland Owie said he knew that “Etiebet was going to have problems when on the very day the late elder statesman and former Senate President, Dr. Chuba Okadigbo’s body was laid in state at our party’s national headquarters and the evening of that day, Etiebet was at Obasanjo’s party. It was shocking."
He said there was “the allegation in June 2004 of N300 million bribe against Etiebet, I had expected the National Chairman to get the magazine to retract the story and if not, go to court. None of these actions were taken. The allegation is an albatross on the chairman’s neck. We have a Bini parable which says the meat you forbid, you do not use your mouth to share it. The party has set up General Magashi committee, the National Executive Council under the Ag. National Chairman, General Jeremiah Useni should consider its report as well as ask Chief Etiebet to explain his position.”
Senator Owie, however, expressed the view that the party would come out stronger and healthier from the crisis.
Aikhomu who just returned from a trip abroad told Vanguard, weekend, he was disturbed that the party, the most credible opposition party to the ruling PDP government of President Olusegun Obasanjo could afford the leisure of a self-destruct mission at a time the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) was being guillotined by the government .
The ANPP national leader who pleaded to be allowed to settle down as “I have just returned from a journey” asked “can you see what is happening to our party. This party is the only hope for the country as at now and it should not be destroyed because Nigerians will not take it lightly.”
On the lawsuit filed by the Northern governors and their two South-West allies to void the onshore/off shore Dichotomy Abrogation Act, Aikhomu said he would want to understand the issues very clearly before volunteering any opinion. He said he was in sort of dilemma because the dichotomy that was introduced during the General Ibrahim Babaginda was not the same thing as the one of Obasanjo, which he descibed as a fraud against the people of the Niger Delta.
