Former Ogun State Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, has said that the senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, needed to be removed as the National Chair of the All Progressives Congress (APC) at the time he was ousted because he was a threat to the party.
Oshiomhole was the APC National Chairman between 2018 and 2020 when former President Muhammadu Buhari was the party’s national leader.
In the buildup to the 2019 elections, former governors Rochas Okorocha of Imo and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun were aggrieved over the APC primary polls presided over by Oshiomhole.
During the presentation of “APC and Transition Politics”, a book authored by Salihu Lukman, immediate-past vice-chairman of the APC in the north-west, on Tuesday, Oshiomhole said Amosun was one of those who worked for his ouster.
However, in a statement on Wednesday, Amosun berated Oshiomhole for feeding the public with lies adding that his utterances represented some “inherent inadequacies”.
He described Oshiomhole’s comment as mere ‘tales by the moonlight,” saying members of the public cannot afford to take to bank anything from Oshiomhole given his penchant for careless talk and unverified public statements.
“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,” Amosun stated.
“This apparent struggle was not for want 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, 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 mad man bury his mum 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 a canon fodder 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 mindset.”
