Ogbeh affirmed this while reacting to what he called a partisan ruling by Justice Adeniyi Ademola of the Federal High Court, Abuja which ordered 37 members of the House of Representatives, who defected to the APC from the PDP, to vacate their seats.
Meanwhile a formal Minister of Aviation and a member of the All Progressive Congress, APC, who is also the advocate of 'No to Muslim-Muslim Ticket', Femi Fani-Kayode has also said he is still in APC and that his position against the speculations of Muslim- Muslim presidential and vice presidential ticket and his recent visit to the presidential villa where he had a closed door meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan has not amount to dumping APC for PDP.
On the contrary, another former Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Malla Nasir El-Rufai has said that what matter most which should be the yardstick for picking the presidential and vice presidential candidates for the party should be competency and integrity and not religion, saying that he can settle for either 'A Muslim-Muslim Ticket, Christian-Christian or Ifa-Ifa Tickets provided they are competent and have proven integrity to stare the country.
In the light of this much taunted rumours that the leadership of the All Progressive Congress had settled for General Muhammad Buhari, and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who are both Muslims, as the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the party for the 2015 election, Ogbeh said in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, that the leadership of the APC had never sat to discuss who becomes the APC presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Audu Ogbeh who insisted that APC leadership have not discussed anything about the Muslim-Muslim ticket, saying that he is a Christian but also open to every religion, called It is purely a speculation. "It is somebody’s idea but no such decision has been reached without debate on the merit and demerits of such an idea. So, that is no reason for anybody to pull out. At the end when we take decisions, Nigerians will be satisfied with the sensibility of our decision.”
On the Federal High Court ruling as regard the federal lawmakers, he said: “The judge did not give a ruling; he gave a piece of advice but we have reason to believe that the advice was truly partisan."
"APC is not trying to accuse the judge of trying to do favours to the PDP. There have been party members who left other parties to join PDP; what does he have to say about them? I wish he could say that anybody who had left his party should quit his seat; but he didn’t say so. There are some judgements that make people wonder if judges are still open-minded and fair in what they do. He had no authority to do so." “No arm of government has the authority to interfere in the internal workings of any other arm under this constitution. So, I think that the House of Representatives has given due consideration to that and realised that, really, they cannot take any action based on the advice of the judge. It was not sought; it was not an issue before him.”
In the light of this much taunted rumours that the leadership of the All Progressive Congress had settled for General Muhammad Buhari, and Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who are both Muslims, as the presidential and vice-presidential candidates of the party for the 2015 election, Ogbeh said in an interview with newsmen in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, that the leadership of the APC had never sat to discuss who becomes the APC presidential and vice presidential candidates.
Audu Ogbeh who insisted that APC leadership have not discussed anything about the Muslim-Muslim ticket, saying that he is a Christian but also open to every religion, called It is purely a speculation. "It is somebody’s idea but no such decision has been reached without debate on the merit and demerits of such an idea. So, that is no reason for anybody to pull out. At the end when we take decisions, Nigerians will be satisfied with the sensibility of our decision.”
On the Federal High Court ruling as regard the federal lawmakers, he said: “The judge did not give a ruling; he gave a piece of advice but we have reason to believe that the advice was truly partisan."
"APC is not trying to accuse the judge of trying to do favours to the PDP. There have been party members who left other parties to join PDP; what does he have to say about them? I wish he could say that anybody who had left his party should quit his seat; but he didn’t say so. There are some judgements that make people wonder if judges are still open-minded and fair in what they do. He had no authority to do so." “No arm of government has the authority to interfere in the internal workings of any other arm under this constitution. So, I think that the House of Representatives has given due consideration to that and realised that, really, they cannot take any action based on the advice of the judge. It was not sought; it was not an issue before him.”
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