By Gbenga Olaifa
December 20, 2023
Former Ogun State governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun has joined issue with the former All Progressive Congress national chairman and former Edo State governor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole who alleged he and former Ekiti State governor, Dr Kayode were responsible for his removal as the party’s national chairman.
Oshiomhole who spoke at the launch of the book “APC and Transition Politics”, authored by Salihu Lukman, a former national vice chairman (North-west) of the party, at the Shehu Yar’Adua Center in Abuja on Tuesday said “The author and some governors, particularly Fayemi and Amosun spearheaded the campaign that led to my removal from office due to my closeness to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who was then the party’s national leader.
“The governors deployed all manner of illegal means to remove me following my moves to enshrine party supremacy.”
However, Amosu who replied to Oshiomhole’s outburst in a statement he signed and released to the press on Wednesday described him as “the biggest and most destructive threat” to the ruling party, explaining that Oshiomhole almost destroyed APC, and his removal as the National Chairman brought sanity to the party.
Amosu said Oshiomhole’s narrative was not only fraught with lies but also that the Edo prince did not boast the requisite integrity to say the truth.
He said the APC conducted the worst primaries in Nigeria’s history under Oshiomhole’s watch, describing him as “APC’s biggest, most destructive threat.
Amosu continued, “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 ended up shopping for his enemies, leading to his eventual removes 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 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 mindset,” he said.