Senator Ibikunle Amosun, a former governor of Ogun State, has criticised former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Adams Oshiomhole for allegedly spending more than N2.4 billion in Ogun, Kwara, and Taraba states in order to help the party win the 2019 general election.
According to Oshiomhole, the expenditure of the funds was brought about by “political juggernauts,” specifically Senators Rochas Okorocha (Imo), Bukola Saraki (Kwara), and Amosun (Ogun), who fiercely opposed the party’s choices in the states.
Speaking at the book launch for former APC National Vice Chairman, Salihu Lukman, North West, Oshiomhole claimed that despite the party’s N800 million investment in the 2019 election, the party did not win the Taraba State governorship.
Amosun underlined that Oshiomhole has a “antecedent and penchant for careless and most times, baseless and unverified public statements” when refuting Oshiomhole’s assertions.
“In fact, 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,” Amosun stated in a statement that he personally signed.
“There is no question that I played a major role in the founding and upkeep of our party, the APC, and I can state with confidence that the party led by Adams Oshiomhole held one of the worst primary elections in the annals of modern Nigerian politics and that he ultimately went out and bought off his own opponents to become our party’s chairman.
“Nigerians shouldn’t rush to forget the accusations that were made before those primaries were held and before the Department of State Service, or DSS, invited him to address some serious claims.
“If there was any doubt that Senator Oshiomhole posed the biggest and most destructive threat to the APC’s existence at that time, his remarks and grandstanding yesterday at an occasion to find solutions to our democratic and party challenges, would have cleared such a mindset. The party’s best bet was to dispose of a canon folder that he was and unfortunately still is.”
However, Amosun urged Oshiomole to be honest.
“He had the option to openly disrespect President Muhammadu Buhari, our leader, if he had chosen to. However, his subdued attempt to make disparaging remarks about him failed the easy test of allegiance because the former president left his own party to join the APC.
“Moreover, why not come forward and ask for the presidency’s favour? To say outright lies, however, such as “You are working for your paymaster in Lagos, paymaster in Bourdillon,” is cheap but representative of a person who, in spite of his evident exposure and educational limits, found himself in a situation he had never imagined.
