Oshiomhole blames Buhari for failing to protect him during removal as APC chairman

Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole, has accused former President Muhammadu Buhari of failing to protect him from the plots of some APC governors to oust him from office.

Oshiomhole, who led the ruling party from 2018 to 2020, said Buhari was “not ready to intervene” in the crisis that rocked the party over the conduct of the primary elections ahead of the 2019 polls.

“Chairman sir (Ganduje), if you have not faced it already, you will face it,” he said.

“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 claimed that some APC governors, such as Rochas Okorocha of Imo and Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun, were unhappy with his leadership and alleged that he took bribes to favour some candidates in the primaries.

He also said that he was interrogated by the Department of State Services (DSS) as a result of the allegations, which he denied.

Oshiomhole’s tenure as APC chairman was cut short by a court order that suspended him in March 2020, paving the way for the appointment of a caretaker committee headed by Yobe Governor Mai Mala Buni.

Oshiomhole made these revelations on Tuesday in Abuja, while speaking at the launch of a book titled “APC and Transition Politics”, written by Salihu Lukman, a former vice-chairman of the APC in the north-west.

He said he faced resistance from the APC governors when he tried to get them to agree on the guidelines for the primaries.

“It felt as though I was in a military barrack,” he said.

He quoted himself as telling Ekiti Governor Kayode Fayemi: “You did a re-sit. You were elected and by the second term, you lost. That means you failed. I did not do a re-sit, and you are lecturing me about power. I can mention some of them.”

He also recalled how Amosun told him that he would have quit the party if not for Buhari.

Oshiomhole also accused Lukman, the author of the book, of being part of the conspiracy against him.

“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,” he said.

He added that some APC governors wanted to hold the meeting on the primaries at the Imo government house, but he objected to it.

Lukman, in his remarks, said the book was meant to stimulate constructive dialogue within the APC.