Embattled national chairman of the ruling APC, Adams Oshiomhole has said that Governor Ibikunle Amosun of Ogun State was blackmailing him so that he would succumb to the governor’s selfish desires.
The governor had, on Sunday, led a delegation of leaders from Ogun State to the official residence of the President at the Presidential Villa, over the ongoing controversy concerning who would fly the flag of the APC in the state governorship election in 2019.
The national leadership of the party had endorsed Dapo Abiodun, who is from Remo, as the party’s candidate while Amosun was supporting the candidature of Adekunle Akinlade, from Yewa.
There were newspaper reports that during the meeting with the Ogun State leaders, the President issued an ultimatum to Oshiomhole to ‘clear the mess’ which emanated in the wake of the governorship primaries in some state chapters of the party and Ogun State.
Amosun also accused Oshiomhole of conniving “with a cabal in Lagos” to write fake results after the party’s primaries which produced Dapo Abiodun as the governorship candidate.
However, speaking in a chat with Daily Independent, an aide of Oshiomhole said the “the National Chairman is surprised by the statements in the media that he was given a matching order by President Buhari to clear the mess arising from the primaries, especially in Ogun State.”
According to him, the news is a figment of the imagination of the sponsors as Oshiomhole was not in attendance when the President hosted the leaders from Ogun State.
The aide said: “There was nothing like that. The report was sponsored by Governor Amosun in his desperate attempt to ensure he has his way at all cost. Oshiomhole was not even present at the meeting the President had with traditional rulers from Ogun state.
“Amosun was the one who told journalists that that was what the President said during the meeting. There was nothing like that. Rather, the President told Oshiomhole to be firm, insist on due process and resist any form of impunity.
“His claim that Oshiomhole connived with a cabal in Lagos is totally false. If Oshiomhole had connived with the said cabal in Lagos and his candidate emerged the winner, would he be making these accusations?”