‘You Are A Pathological Liar’ – Oshiomhole Tells Amosun

The former National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has described Ogun state former Governor, Ibikunle Amosun, as a pathological liar.

Oshiomhole said this in a statement on Thursday while reacting to Amosun’s comments to his remarks at the presentation of a book on Tuesday in Abuja.

Recall that Oshiomhole had claimed that APC governors, including Amosun, plotted his removal as the ruling party’s chairman, and constituted themselves as Generals, whom the party should defer to, during the moment of critical decision-making.

He also accused Amosun of disloyalty, saying that he abandoned his leader, Muhammadu Buhari, in the defunct All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), and defected to the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN).

In his reaction via a statement on Wednesday titled “Amuse Yourself, Not the Public”, Amosun said Oshiomhole was responsible for his exit as chairman.

The former Ogun governor accused Oshiomhole of conducting one of the worst primaries in the history of Nigeria’s contemporary politics and ended up shopping his enemies, leading to his eventual removal as the APC Chairman.

Reacting to Amosun’s comments, Oshiomhole recalled that the former governor supported a governorship candidate on the platform of an opposition party when he was the Ogun APC leader.

Senator Oshiomhole also took exception to Amosun’s remark that he found himself in too public positions, saying that he doesn’t need to comment on the remark.

However, Oshiomhole denied disrespecting former President Buhari, saying that he supported him as party chairman but allowed the governors to oust him from office.

The statement reads: “The first thing is that I did not in any way say anything that was meant or that can be interpreted to mean an attack on the person of (former) President Muhammadu Buhari. Not at all. On the contrary, he is one of those who made it possible for me to be National chairman of APC.

“He contributed a lot for me to be chairman, so I have no reason to say anything against him.

“For over a period of a year, they were planning the removal but they were not able to get it and not once or twice did the President (Buhari) warn them that those who want to take any decision, that was the way he put it, who want to remove anybody, they should follow the constitution.

“The President said so on record and net. So I have no grievance whatsoever for my removal. However, the problem is, people like Amosun who believed personal relationship keeps boasting. People like Amosun were the ones who dropped the name of the president as cover for them not to follow the party’s constitution and there is no secret about it.

“Number one, that he defied the rules of the party and floated another party and encouraged his loyalist to contest governorship election on another party platform called the APM.

“We queried him and subsequently we suspended him as a member of the party. Again, this is not a secret.

“Why he hypocritically sponsored people on APM’s platform is because he knew he didn’t have the political weight and he contested his own Senatorial election on APC’s platform. So, what is not true about this?

“Number two, that he contested governorship on the ANPP platform and lost. On the primary election we conducted in Ogun State, he went to the Federal High Court and the court of appeal and his objection was dismissed because it is on record that he disobeyed the rules of the party. He did not participate in a lawful primary and therefore he had no Locus Standi to question what happened in those primaries.

“He relied heavily on his closeness to power to disobey the rules of the party and God gave me the courage and we suspended him.

“He also knew he told me that but for the president, he will not conduct primary. He said had no right to ask to supervise his primary.

“He did not behave like Senator Tejuoso also from Ogun State who contested for senatorial election like Amosun and lost but he did not leave the ANPP to join us in ACN like Amosun and it is on record.

“He also lobbied Tinubu to give him ACN’s ticket. By then I was a governor. So I was part of this process and we supported him financially and logistically for him to win the election. So I was also his pay master.

“We keep records including any other presidential election. But the whole story is both that because he had an ambition which like other ambitions died in his womb, to contest for presidential election which form he obtained. This is not a secret.

“I am grateful to ex-President Buhari because he stood by me, it is just that at the point when he was about to work, he allowed the governors, not all the governors, to have their way. Majority of the governors were on my side.

“The result was that those of them who were against me, who were holding meetings, plotting and calculating tried to use the judiciary.

“If they had the power, they didn’t need to use the court. They should have used the democratic means. That is ridiculous. But the fact is that I have no bitterness whatsoever, but we must record history.

“We need to document history and not allow people to get away from certain behaviour. It is important that whatever we do is recorded for or against us.

“That was the only thing I mentioned. It makes no difference. In any case, if they claim that my people didn’t like me, I have since won a senatorial election.

“Well, I don’t think I need to comment on that because you can’t fight with pigs in the mud water.

“Whatever he says, today I am a sitting Senator. I led the entire workforce of Nigeria as NLC President. So he has nothing about his credentials, powers or position that he can compare himself to me.

“So, he is entitled to his opinion. But I didn’t get any of those positions through godfatherism. I fought my way to where I am.

“So, I think the conclusion is don’t forget how he vowed that I would not leave the stadium alive when we went to campaign there.

“He arranged boys who went to the rally who were throwing stones and sticks at us. It was also on national television, it was covered live.

“They were throwing water and stones at us at the podium and they nearly stoned the President who had to jump to prevent one of the missiles from hitting the president.

“Again, this was on national television. And like I told him the day he called me with the president from the villa, he is just a pathological liar. And I’m happy that he has or I hope that he has learnt his lesson. All these things I have said, I can say them on oath.”