The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole says despite alleged anti-party activities of the governors of Imo and Osun states, the party will win in both states during the 2019 elections because of its popularity.

Speaking on Wednesday after receiving the APC women leaders from Edo State and Abuja who paid him a solidarity visit in his office in Abuja, Oshiomhole described governors Rochas Okorocha and Ibikunle Amosun as poor students of history who had forgotten they lost elections before winning on the platform of the APC.

Okorocha, Amosun and Governor Abdul-Aziz Yari of Zamfara State have been at loggerheads with Oshiomhole for not recognizing their preferred governorship candidates in their respective states.

His words: “Those who think our political future is tied to them; they are poor students of their own political history. Some of these people who talk as if they are invincible, they have forgotten that they have run elections in the past and lost until they abandoned their parties and joined us.

“So if they return back, history will repeat itself. Whether you are a big or small man, the rules are not supposed to discriminate. Our popularity in Imo and Ogun today is much higher. It is not that once you are a governor you have high electoral value.

“Yes in APC, our governors have high electoral value but we also a few who are electoral liabilities.”

Oshiomhole stressed that Nigeria needed to go back to the era where institutions were respected and protected, adding that the anti-party activities of the two governors would not affect the fortunes of the party in 2019.

“In Imo state today, APC will win more votes. My focus is on ordinary Imo voters because on that day, the governor would have only one vote, his son-in-law would have only one vote while his Commissioner for Happiness would have only one vote.

“But artisans, traders, teachers and workers whose salaries are not being paid have the same weight of vote and they are excited about the renewed possibility of a new government coming with fresh ideas and free of all the encumbrances of the present system. So in Imo, I’m very confident.

“Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is from Ogun State. The state is one of the most enlightened States in Nigeria. They have a huge history. They are not in a political kingdom headed by one person.

“If they were looking for true reconciliation, they wouldn’t have done what they did. That is not how democracy works. Nigeria must grow beyond this syndrome of ‘I’m the governor, I will decide’. You have only one vote. With due respect, I was once a governor. Overall, APC is much stronger now,” he added.