Adams Oshiomhole, former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has revealed how former Governors of Ekiti and Ogun States, as well as Salihu Lukman, the Party’s former National Vice Chairman (North-West), plotted his removal from office as APC’s chair.
According to him, as ex-Governors Kayode Fayemi, Ibikunle Amosun of Ekiti and Ogun respectively were plotting his removal, the President at the time, Muhammadu Buhari, did not intervene.
He made the revelation at the launch of a book “APC and Transition Politics”, authored by Salihu Lukman, in Abuja, on Tuesday.
Oshiomhole further recounted how the author alongside the Governors spearheaded the campaign and deployed all manner of “illegal” means to remove him following his moves to enshrine the Party’s supremacy.
“Lukman wrote several letters, dismissing my leadership without calling me. When you ride on the back of a tiger, there is only one destination.
“Lukman was appointed undemocratically by the governors’ forum. I was not consulted— I was a governor. We were told this is the new DG of the APC governors forum.
“I wrote to the governors for a meeting. The governors said no, I should come to Imo House, not the APC office. He [Lukman] was there [where they were holding the meeting]. He did not see anything wrong with that.
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“It felt as though I was in a military barrack,” Oshiomhole said while recalling the atmosphere at the meeting.
He said following the diatribes from the Governors, he responded saying: “None of you can lecture me about the power of a governor. Because I have been governor twice. Eight years uninterrupted.
“At a point, I told Fayemi, ‘You did a resit. You were elected and by the second term, you lost. That means you failed’. I did not do a resit, and you are lecturing me about power. I can mention some of them.
“The man in Ogun State, he told me if not for the President, he would have left the party. Some of them told me ‘You are working for your paymaster in Lagos. Your paymaster in Bourdillon.’”
He, therefore, warned the current National Chairman of the party, Abdullahi Ganduje to be prepared because, according to him, the Governors are going to play the same card against him.
“Chairman sir, if you have not faced it already, you will face it. The only difference is if the president decides to intervene and moderate. In my own case, we have a president who was not ready to intervene,” he said.
