A former governor of Ogun State and lawmaker representing Ogun Central Senatorial District in the National Assembly, Ibikunle Amosun, has accused his counterpart, the Senator representing Edo North Senatorial district, Adams Oshiomhole, of turning the truth on its head over circumstances surrounding his removal as national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), saying the former Edo governor lacks integrity and was indeed a threat to the APC as Chairman.
Oshiomhole had in his address, delivered on Tuesday, during a book presentation titled: “APC and Transition Politics’, written by a former national Vice Chairman of the North West, Salihu Lukman, accused the governors on the party platform of orchestrating his removal.
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The former Edo state governor specifically accused Amosun and the former Ekiti state Governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, as masterminds of his removal.
He also accused former President, Muhammadu Buhari, of indifference to the orchestrated plot that culminated in his sack at an emergency meeting of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party in June 2020.
But in a swift response on Wednesday, Amosun insisted Oshiomhole was the architect of his political travails as APC national chairman.
In a statement titled “Amuse Yourself, Not the Public”, Amosun accused Oshiomhole of conducting “one of the worst primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics and ended up shopping for his own enemies, leading to his eventual removal as Chairman of our party.”
The statement reads: “It’s been a struggle since yesterday on what to make of the ‘tales by moonlight’ that Senator Adams Oshiomhole treated the audience of Dr Salihu Lukman to at his book launch, “APC and Transition Politics”, in Abuja.
“This apparent struggle was not for lack of a proportional response to his deliberate drivel, but because not only was his story fraught with lies but also because he did not boast the requisite integrity to say the truth.
“Besides, it is not in my character to join issues with people I consider qualified enough to be referred to as both leaders of our party, the APC, and of this great country, Nigeria, to which I believe Senator Oshiomhole belongs.
“However, given his antecedents and penchant for careless and, most times, baseless and unverified public statements, and also considering my duty to the country and the public in particular, it will be uncharitable if I fail to put the records straight.
“What Senator Oshiomhole was alleged to have said, apart from being far from the truth, is a calculated attempt to present water while drinking wine.
“The Yoruba adage says, “If you let a madman bury his mom the way it pleases him, he could roast her for a meal.” At that point, the community is to blame for his choice.
“Indeed, listening to him yesterday, his utterances represent some inherent inadequacy, which he vented not just at inauspicious times but without basis and predicated only on lies to hoodwink the unsuspecting.
“It is not in doubt that I have participated fully in the formation and sustenance of our party, the APC, and I can boldly say that the party under Adams Oshiomhole conducted one of the worst primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics and ended up shopping for his own enemies, leading to his eventual removal as Chairman of our party.
“Nigerians should not be in a hurry to forget the allegations that preceded the conduct of those primaries and his eventual invitation by the Department of State Service, DSS, to clarify certain grave allegations.
“If anyone was in doubt that Senator Oshiomhole posed the biggest and most destructive threat to the existence of the APC at that time, and the party’s best bet was to dispose of the canon folder that he was and unfortunately still is, his utterances and grandstanding yesterday at an occasion to find solutions to our democratic and party challenges would have cleared such a mindset.
“If he wanted to insult our leader, President Muhammadu Buhari, he could have come out boldly to do so. But his subtle attempt to pass snide remarks at him failed the simple test of loyalty because the former president also moved from his own party to merge with other like-minded people to form the APC.
“Also, if he is seeking favour from the presidency, why not come out and do so? But to tell barefaced lies like, “You are working for your paymaster in Lagos, your paymaster in Bourdillon,” is cheap but typical of an individual who suddenly found himself where he never dreamt of, despite his obvious limitations—education and exposure.
“If the public will remember, soon after Senator Oshiomhole was sworn in as a Senator, he allegedly said members of the 9th Senate had vandalised their offices before leaving, only for him to eat the humble pie and made to apologise later when it was obvious that the allegations were baseless.
“My honest advice to him is to carefully and soberly sit down to take stock of his past so that it will continue to serve as a guide for him in his future public utterances rather than dragging the names of innocent people into a needless controversy because in Africa, age and leadership are associated with wisdom.
“This is also why I have consistently brushed aside and intentionally scoffed at his tongue-in-cheek apology, which he had extended to me several times. I am now convinced it was not genuine.
“In the final analysis, background matters!”
Responding, the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Adams Oshiomhole, described Ibikunle Amosun as a pathological liar.
Oshiomhole said this in a statement on Thursday while reacting to Amosun’s comments to his remarks at the presentation of a book on Tuesday in Abuja.
Oshiomhole recalled that the former governor supported a governorship candidate on the platform of an opposition party when he was the Ogun APC leader.
Senator Oshiomhole also took exception to Amosun’s remark that he found himself in too many public positions, saying that he doesn’t need to comment on the remark.
However, Oshiomhole denied disrespecting former President Buhari, saying that he supported him as party chairman but allowed the governors to oust him from office.
The statement reads: “The first thing is that I did not in any way say anything that was meant or that can be interpreted to mean an attack on the person of (former) President Muhammadu Buhari. Not at all. On the contrary, he is one of those who made it possible for me to be National chairman of the APC.
“He contributed a lot for me to be chairman, so I have no reason to say anything against him.
“For over a period of a year, they were planning the removal, but they were not able to get it and not once or twice did the President (Buhari) warn them that those who want to take any decision, that was the way he put it, who want to remove anybody, they should follow the constitution.
“The President said so on record and net. So I have no grievance whatsoever for my removal. However, the problem is, people like Amosun who believed personal relationship keeps boasting. People like Amosun were the ones who dropped the name of the president as cover for them not to follow the party’s constitution and there is no secret about it.
“Number one, that he defied the rules of the party and floated another party and encouraged his loyalist to contest the governorship election on another party platform called the APM.
“We queried him and subsequently, we suspended him as a member of the party. Again, this is not a secret.
“Why he hypocritically sponsored people on APM’s platform is because he knew he didn’t have the political weight and he contested his own Senatorial election on APC’s platform. So, what is not true about this?
“Number two, that he contested governorship on the ANPP platform and lost. On the primary election we conducted in Ogun State, he went to the Federal High Court and the court of appeal and his objection was dismissed because it is on record that he disobeyed the rules of the party. He did not participate in a lawful primary and therefore he had no Locus Standi to question what happened in those primaries.
“He relied heavily on his closeness to power to disobey the rules of the party and God gave me the courage and we suspended him.
“He also knew he told me that, but for the president, he will not conduct primary. He said he had no right to ask to supervise his primary.
“He did not behave like Senator Tejuoso, also from Ogun State who contested for the senatorial election like Amosun and lost, but he did not leave the ANPP to join us in the ACN like Amosun, and it is on record.
“He also lobbied Tinubu to give him ACN’s ticket. By then, I was a governor. So I was part of this process, and we supported him financially and logistically for him to win the election. So I was also his paymaster.
“We keep records including any other presidential election. But the whole story is both that because he had an ambition, which like other ambitions died in his womb, to contest for presidential election which form he obtained. This is not a secret.
“I am grateful to ex-President Buhari because he stood by me, it is just that at the point when he was about to work, he allowed the governors, not all the governors, to have their way. Majority of the governors were on my side.
“The result was that those of them who were against me, who were holding meetings, plotting and calculating tried to use the judiciary.
“If they had the power, they didn’t need to use the court. They should have used the democratic means. That is ridiculous. But the fact is that I have no bitterness whatsoever, but we must record history.
“We need to document history and not allow people to get away from certain behaviour. It is important that whatever we do is recorded for or against us.
“That was the only thing I mentioned. It makes no difference. In any case, if they claim that my people didn’t like me, I have since won a senatorial election.
“Well, I don’t think I need to comment on that because you can’t fight with pigs in the mud water.
“Whatever he says, today I am a sitting Senator. I led the entire workforce of Nigeria as NLC President. So he has nothing about his credentials, powers or position that he can compare himself to me.
“So, he is entitled to his opinion. But I didn’t get any of those positions through godfatherism. I fought my way to where I am.
“So, I think the conclusion is don’t forget how he vowed that I would not leave the stadium alive when we went to campaign there.
“He arranged boys who went to the rally who were throwing stones and sticks at us. It was also on national television, it was covered live.
“They were throwing water and stones at us at the podium, and they nearly stoned the President who had to jump to prevent one of the missiles from hitting the president.
“Again, this was on national television. And like I told him the day he called me with the president from the villa, he is just a pathological liar. And I’m happy that he has or I hope that he has learnt his lesson. All these things I have said, I can say them on oath.”