Ogun APC: Amosun draws battle line with Tinubu, others

Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun state has blamed the national leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu and a former governor of the state, Chief Segun Osoba of being responsible for the crisis rocking the party in the state.

Amosun who made the allegation on Monday shortly after swearing in the new Chief Judge of the state, Justice Mosunmola Dipeolu, accused the national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole, of conniving “with a cabal in Lagos” to write fake results that produced Prince Dapo Abiodun as governorship candidate.

He said: “The president already knows there was no election in Ogun State. He knows that they just went to Lagos and wrote all results. And what they did is fraud.”

Insisting the only authentic primary was the one that produced Adekunle Akinlade as governorship candidate, he said: “The issue of Chief Osoba and Asiwaju and co, what we said was that there was a deafening silence from their end, and silence means consent. You can record me and publish in your newspapers.

“We have not heard one word from any of them (Tinubu and Osoba). Was there any election in Ogun State? Yes or No? They should come out. Those that are hiding behind one finger, they cannot come out. People, at this level, should be courageous enough to take a position, to come out and tell us whether there was an election.”

But reacting, Osoba said: “I don’t want to be dragged into that issue. There is no basis for me to react to it.”

Meanwhile, the deputy national publicity secretary of the party, Mr. Yekini Nabena, also on Monday accused Oshiomhole of arrogating to himself monopoly of knowledge in running the affairs of the party.

He accused Oshiomhole of taking key decisions from his private office, rather than the national secretariat and for failing to consult the 21-members NWC.

Nabena, who until recently acted as spokesperson for the party, also blamed the NWC for allowing the chairman to usurp its powers. According to him, the crises rocking the APC would have been avoided had members been allowed a say in the party’s policy direction.

But a member of the House of Representatives, Dau Aliyu Magaji (Birnin Kudu/Buji federal constituency, Jigawa State) disagreed. “Oshiomhole is our chairman for life. Oshiomhole has been a very good omen for APC. You can see that the governors could not hijack the party anymore because we have strong chairman. The governors should be members of the party. The party should have one chairman.

Even the governors should be answerable to the chairman in their states. The party should be supreme and I think with the coming of Comrade Oshiomhole, the party is now supreme. You either do what the party wants or you go to another party,” he said.