Senator Adams Oshiomhole has taken a swipe at former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, stating that he lacks the moral authority to criticise former Delta State Governor Ifeanyi Okowa and Governor Sheriff Oborevwori for defecting to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Speaking at the 28th Founders’ Day Lecture of the Independent Television and Radio in Benin, themed “Nigeria, Where Are We Going?”, the senator representing Edo North said Atiku is in no position to condemn defections, as he has made party-switching a common practice.
“I was listening to people who tried to evaluate the import of the reunion of Edo and Delta with Dr. Okowa and Governor Oborevwori joining the APC,” Oshiomhole said.
He argued that Atiku has frequently shifted political allegiances to suit his personal interests and has often remained silent when such moves benefited him.
“And those who are talking, including people like Atiku, who helped us realize by his action that a sitting vice president can decamp and take the position of a vice president to an opposition party and still retain the position and Supreme Court has pronouncement on that.”
“At that time, I was the unofficial opposition as president of the NLC. He then went to Bourdillon in Lagos to join another party called Action Congress and became their presidential candidate and contested and lost.”
“This same person who is louder criticizing Okowa, again defected back to the PDP, he contested and lost, he again decamped to APC and contested against former president Muhammadu Buhari and he lost. He again decamped back to PDP and contested against President Bola Tinubu and lost,” Oshiomhole said.
He added that it was ironic for Atiku to target someone like Okowa, who had only switched political parties once.
“I was surprised that Atiku was criticising a man who only decamped once from one political party to another,” he said.
Oshiomhole also took the opportunity to refute a long-standing allegation that he once claimed all sins are forgiven once someone joins the APC. He insisted that the quote was a media distortion.
“I have issued statements to deny it. They (media) don’t have the proof. I have asked them to provide the video clips where I made the comment,” he said.
He explained that his comments had been taken out of context during a defection event involving a man named Patrick Iluobe.
“A man, Patrick Iluobe was defecting from the PDP to APC and his father’s name, Iluobe in their dialect means: I have stopped doing bad.
“So, I said now that you are leaving PDP, a party that deceive people, you will stop doing bad, but the media guys who are committed to the PDP mischievously twisted that Oshiomhole said once you join, APC, all your sins are forgiven,” he clarified.
