Oyegun seeks peace in ruling party

Former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun has called for compromise in the crisis rocking the ruling party.

He said every effort must be made to establish peace within the party so that the APC will not go into the general elections in next year as divided house.

In a chat with reporters at his Abuja residence, Odigie-Oyegun, who noted that the crisis rocking the party was unfortunate, said it was gratifying that the leadership of the party has initiated peace moves and expressed confidence that the ongoing peace moves will yield expected results.

He said:  “We need to begin to confront the election in February next year, which, given the state of the nation, are bound to be challenging.”

The elder statesman said he was not aware of any committed member of the party who is comfortable with the crisis rocking the party.

He said: “Well I can say something for sure that I am not happy as to state of peace or the relative instability in the party. I don’t think I know someone who is happy today about that.

“But like I said earlier, there are peace missions that I have found all over the country and so, at this point in time, it will be ill-opportune for me to start saying how things went bad because that happened or because that did not happen but as a statesman, let me not start passing my own personal judgment where there is a team out trying to broker peace, I won’t be helping the situation.

“What we require is peace I pray God give these teams the wisdom that is required to work out the settlement to bring the party back to strong political party fighting force.”

He appealled to APC members across the country to show understanding and loyalty, saying: “As far as my own party is concerned, I have only one appeal that there should be peace and that every effort should be made to establish peace such that we will approach the elections a united force, a united voice and a united party, rallying around a united programme of action.

“There is no doubt about it that there are very serious disputations within the party. And I’m very very glad that peace teams have been sent out, I was glad to run into one of these teams once while I was on private business in the Southeast. And it is my prayer that they achieve the goals for which they were set up and for the reason they have been sent out.

“But it is necessary to state that for peace to happen, there is need to emphasize that all sides must be ready to give and to take, there  must be willingness for compromise, such that can bring the party back together in such a fighting mood. We need to begin to confront the election in February next year which given the state of the nation, are bound to be challenging.”