Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the immediate past national chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), on Monday, August 17, met with President Muhammadu Buhari over the incoming governorship election in Edo state.
It was reported that the former governor of Edo state alleged that some APC governors are using the PGF’s director-general, Salihu Lukman, against him.
While responding to an assertion made by the forum that he might be attempting to stage a come back as the party boss, Oshiomhole accused Ekiti state governor and chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF), Kayode Fayemi, of unilaterally appointing Lukman as the PGF’s DG.
He told the State House correspondents that he would not engage in a dirty fight with the DG. “What they don’t understand is that it is not the office of chairman that made me who I am. It is my pedigree from my days as a labourer in the textile industry to be the general secretary of textile workers all over Nigeria and becoming the president of NLC. “There is no village I go to that people do not know me and it is this that I used to override the godfathers in Edo state for two consecutive terms, no violence before becoming the national chairman.
“So, my attitude is not to reply to the noise and it is coming from somebody who says he is an employee and appointee of this Progressives Governors Forum. He contested for Senate against Makarfi, he lost. He even contested against governor El-Rufai during the primaries and he lost before Fayemi unilaterally appointed him the DG,” he said.
It was also reported that Oshiomhole denied plotting to return as the national chairman of APC. Oshiomhole wondered why anyone would imagine he would like to ‘resit’ a class he had passed, saying only ‘an empty brain’ would suggest that he was plotting a comeback. “You want me to engage in a fight with a pig? If you engage in a fight with a pig, the pig already is stained by its nature and you will wear your white garment, and in my own case, khaki to go and wrestle with a pig? I will not. “You see, what I want the media to interrogate, how does winning Edo…when I was removed as national chairman, Edo was APC…So do I have to win Edo to become the chairman? Do I look so unemployed? I’m 68.
“So, what they don’t understand is that it is not the office of chairman that made me who I am,” he added.
Oshiomhole said he was at the presidential Villa to appreciate the president and pledge his absolute loyalty to him.
He also revealed that he requested for security for the conduct of the September 19 poll, saying that whoever is found wanting among the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) or the APC should be brought to book.
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