“I’ll resign if Asapngu is denied victory” -Osih Joshua

From Nfor Adamu in Bamenda

As the deadlock over the disputed SDF national organising secretary post continues, the SDF 1^st vice national chairman, Osih Joshua is quoted as warning that he would resign from the leading opposition party should the presumed winner of the disputed polls, Asapngu Ferdinand be denied victory.

Osih Joshua, The Guardian Post gathered, made his threat directly to Fru Ndi during the 8^th elective convention of the SDF that held in Bamenda.

Osih’s threat to resign from the SDF, The Guardian Post was further told, came on the heels of the disputed national organizing secretary polls at the convention.

As the deadlock persisted in the hall over the disputed polls; which saw incumbent, Asapngu Ferdinand winning but the poll results being contested, violently by his opponent, Vaneganseen Mochiggle, Asapngu threatened to storm out of the hall and immediately announced his resignation.

It was at this juncture that Osih Joshua told Fru Ndi, “Chairman, if Asapngu resigns, I will also do”.

Questioned why Osih Joshua should have made such a threat, a close aide to the SDF 1^st vice chairman told The Guardian Post that it was Asapngu who convinced and brought Osih Joshua into the SDF. Osih Joshua, The Guardian Post was told, is not blindly supporting Asapngu but wishes to see the true winner of the disputed poll handed victory.

 

Mochiggle, no match to Asapngu

Meanwhile as the deadlock over who would emerge winner of the disputed poll continues, SDF partisans have resorted to comparing the two contestants. In the opinion of many SDF militants, entrusting a strategic position like the national organizing secretary to Mochiggle is like handing over the interior ministry to a primary school boy.

Mochiggle, they say, joined the SDF after he was frustrated by the CPDM. After leaving the CPDM, the same Mochiggle embarked on exporting pepper out of the country, but because of lack of management acumen, the business crumbled even before it started.

When he joined the SDF, he was entrusted the responsibility to manage the party’s printing press which is today history because of bad management.

Questioned yet an SDF militant “If Mochiggle could not manage his pepper business, is it the post of national organizing secretary that he would manage?”

Mochiggle is also faulted for not having the required means that can see him tour the entire country like Asapngu has been doing. “We don’t want a national organizing secretary that would always move around with the beggar’s bowl each time he wants to make even a tour of Mezam”, another SDF official mocked.

Talking about Asapngu, who has been SDF district chairman for Kumba for the past 19 years, most SDF NEC members who hail from the North West recalled that the SDF political heavyweight is not only credited for implanting the party in Kumba but is also known to have fought running battles with soldiers and election-riggers in Meme while defending his party’s victory.  “There is no questioning the fact that the name Asapngu is synonymous with SDF in Kumba”, a North West SDF MP told The Guardian Post anonymously.

There is no gainsaying the fact that on account of his unalloyed SDF militancy, the firebrand politician has suffered more arrests and torture than all other members of the party put together. At one time, he was detained at the Secretariat of State for Defence (SED) and was held incommunicado for one full month. He has also severally been arrested and detained in the gendarmerie brigade at Bonanjo and Deido in Douala respectively, as well as in Buea.