The former Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, has lambasted Senator Adams Oshiomhole (APC Edo North) over his role during the 2019 All Progressives Congress primaries, describing him as the “biggest and most destructive threat” to the ruling party.
Recall that Amosun and Oshiomhole, who was then APC National Chairman, squared up during APC primaries in the build-up to the 2019 general election.
The clash followed the disputed governorship primary in Ogun State which edged out Amosun’s anointed candidate, Adekunle Akinlade, in favour of Dapo Abiodun.
The seed of discord was sown in October 2018, when two governorship candidates emerged.
The Mohammed Indabawa-led panel sent to the state by the APC National Working Committee declared Abiodun winner. But the Derin Adebiyi-led state executive of the APC announced Akinlade as the winner of another primary it conducted.
The emergence of two candidates led to a series of allegations and counter-arguments.
While Amosun’s camp alleged that the Indabawa panel did not conduct any primary, the NWC questioned where the Adeniyi-led executive “conducted a primary and declared Akinlade winner”.
The Oshiomhole-led NWC later backed Abiodun against Amosun’s man, a development that severed the former governors’ relationship.
More than four years later, Oshiomhole revisited the 2019 drama on Tuesday. He hinted that the party spent a whopping N2.4 billion to win the governorship elections in Kwara, Imo and Ogun State.
Oshiomhole spoke at the book launch of the former APC National Vice Chairman North West, Salihu Lukman. He said that the party lost the Taraba State governorship election even though it invested N800 million into the election in 2019.
According to him, the need to spend N800 million in Imo, Ogun, Kwara, and Taraba was because they had strong opposition leaders in those states.
For Imo State, he said that there was Senator Rochas Okorocha, who was against the candidate of the party. Kwara had former Senate President, Senator Bukola Saraki, and in Ogun State APC had Amosun who worked against the party’s candidate, Abiodun.
However, Amosun, in a statement on Wednesday, lambasted the former Edo governor, saying his narrative was not only fraught with lies but also that he (Oshiomhole) did not boast the requisite integrity to say the truth.
Amosun said APC conducted the worst primaries in Nigeria’s history under Oshiomhole’s watch, describing him as “APC’s biggest, most destructive threat”.
“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.
“He 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 cannon 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 a mindset,” he said.
Source | Vanguard
