Amosun to Oshiomhole: You lack respect for truth, decency

The Governor of Ogun State, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, says the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, lacks respect for truth and decency.

The governor stated this while reacting to statements credited to Oshiomhole on the controversy surrounding the primaries of the party in Ogun State.

He also said, “The design of the national chairman and his collaborators to hijack the government of Ogun State and hand it over to a gang of rapacious expansionists in the South-West will fail.”

The state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Adedayo Adeneye, stated this in a statement issued on Saturday.

Adeneye said the governor had noted the unsavoury language used against him by the party chairman, but that he (Amosun) “will not descend into the gutter to exchange words with him (Oshiomhole).”

Amosun said the APC leadership in Ogun State was contended with the only governorship primary held in the state on October 2, which produced Adekunle Akinlade as the winner.

He said the emergence of Akinlade was initially through a consensus arrangement as allowed by the party constitution but was nevertheless subjected to a primary election when some aspirants disagreed with the outcome of the consensus arrangement.

He said, “This is however, without prejudice to the sanctity of the consensus arrangement which Adams Oshiomhole hypocritically tried to demonise. “Nigerians will recall that Oshiomhole himself was elected national chairman of the APC by consensus arrangement which witnessed all other contestants to the office being prevailed upon to step down for him (Oshiomhole).

“The grounds on which Oshiomhole disputed the governorship primary in Ogun State is that the result was not announced by the State Electoral Committee from Abuja, meaning that the governor resorted to self-help.

“We wonder why Oshiomhole accepted the result of the primary election in Lagos State when the result was also not announced by the State Electoral Panel. Why will the same scenario be acceptable in Lagos State but regarded as self-help in Ogun State? Is it because it was executed by the Capo Di Tutti in Lagos State?

“We wish to call the attention of Nigerians to another evil being perpetrated by Oshiomhole in Ogun State.

“As of today, November 3, which is 24 hours after the deadline for submission of names of candidates for the House of Assembly to the INEC, Oshiomhole has not given INEC Party Candidate Form (CF001) to any of the 26 candidates who won the primaries to contest the Ogun State House of Assembly.

“The primary was conducted on October 7 by the State Electoral Committee headed by Col. Ali Ciroma. This is despite the fact that the state chairman of the party had kept vigil at the national secretariat of the APC in the last two weeks to collect the forms.

“If Oshiomhole is denying the outcome of the governorship primary because the State Electoral Committee shied away from announcing the result, what is the reason for denying all the 26 candidates for the House of Assembly freely elected by members of the APC in Ogun State?

“We want Nigerians to note the duplicity and meddlesomeness of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his gang in the affairs of the APC in Ogun State.” Punch