The All Progressives Congress, APC, has strongly condemned the sponsored disruption of Governor Adams Oshiomhole's presentation during a meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue in Benin on Monday, saying the despicable action has vindicated the party's decision not to be part of the proposed confab.
In a statement issued in Lagos yesterday by its Interim National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party expressed shock that the governor of a state hosting a meeting of the advisory committee could be so primitively treated by hired thugs, led by a member of the committee.
The party said the Senator Femi Okurounmu committee must thoroughly be ashamed that one of its members led the show of shame, while demanding an unreserved apology from the committee to Oshiomhole. It added that the member involved must be cautioned or opinexcused from the committee.
The party said: "The truth is that in proposing the conference, the government has no sincerity of purpose, does not believe in engaging in any dialogue with anyone but itself and has only used it to distract the attention of Nigerians from the total absence of governance and sense of direction by the Jonathan administration.
"This is why we refused to participate in what is nothing but a sheer deceit. We have already been vindicated even before the start of the conference." The party said since the essence of democratic discourse is for all sides to be allowed to have their say, it was wrong for anyone to have been shouted down because his stand does not tally with that of the committee or the organisers of the meeting.
"Worse still is that a member of the committee led the thugs who so rudely and irresponsibly shouted down a governor. What a contradiction that a member of a panel set up to help forge national discourse does not even believe in the plurality of opinions. Does anyone need any further evidence that the committee has already made up its mind on the direction their so-called assignment will take? How can you sincerely hope to midwife a dialogue with Nigerians when you cannot even oversee a dialogue in a town hall meeting?" it queried.
The party noted that even if they have no respect for the person of Governor Oshiomhole, they should have at least shown respect for the office he is occupying. "If a person in the calibre of Governor Oshiomhole, with his antecedents and prominent role in the national political discourse, cannot be allowed to air his opinion on any issue, what then will happen to ordinary citizens?'' the party asked. It, however, commended the governor for his maturity and decency, which showed through in his handling of the situation despite the indignity meted out to him.
"By his comportment, from which his security and other aides apparently took a cue, Governor Oshiomhole averted what could have been a violent confrontation and left no one in doubt that he is a true democrat. In the end, those who conspired to humiliate him have unwittingly played up his tolerance, his decency and his democratic credentials," the party said.