How Oshiomhole attacked Fayemi after meeting with Buhari

Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole, verbally attacked Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State and Director General of the Progressives Governors Forum Salihu Lukman, after his meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari at the State House on Monday, August 17, 2020.

Oshiomhole was suspended as APC national chairman in March and was eventually kicked out of the role on June 25, 2020 after President Buhari dissolved the APC National Working Committee (NWC); following a prolonged leadership crisis that had engulfed the nation’s governing party.

Oshiomhole has repeatedly maintained that a couple of governors and ministers in the APC do not like his face.

Ekiti State Governor, Kayode Fayemi (Guardian) Pulse Nigeria

Various sources who have discussed the crisis and power play at the APC with Pulse, have repeatedly mentioned Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi and Fayemi as some of the party chieftains who pulled out all the stops to end Oshiomhole’s reign.

It is also believed that when Oshiomhole speaks of the minister and governor(s) who made his reign as Chairman of APC a topsy-turvy one, he's referring to these men.

Oshiomhole calls Lukman a 'pig'

Oshiomhole believes that Lukman, who heads the secretariat of the APC Governors forum, is being sponsored by Fayemi to attack him.

A couple of days ago, Lukman blamed Oshiomhole for the crisis rocking the APC in Edo, ahead of the state’s governorship election slated for September 19.

Incumbent Edo Governor Godwin Obaseki ditched the APC for the PDP after he was denied the APC ticket, thanks in large part to Oshiomhole's subterranean moves.

Lukman has asked Oshiomhole to take a back seat role ahead of the vote, in order not to mess things further for the APC in Edo and jeopardize the party's chances of winning the election.

“The APC campaign is personalized around Comrade Oshiomhole and the candidate of the party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is an onlooker. We need to appeal to Comrade Oshiomhole to ‘calm down’. This campaign is not about his person,” Lukman had said.

Lukman's remarks have angered Oshiomhole.

This week, Oshiomhole likened Lukman to a pig who has been sponsored to attack him, and called his backers ‘cowards.’

“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 Progressives Governors Forum,” Oshiomhole said.

“He is just like the cowards that are using him...that are not able to come out. Otherwise, you should ask this guy, who is now an election expert.

“He contested for the 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.

“So, if he is now the spokesman abusing me and all of that, you want to drag me to his level? No!

“A gentleman does not wrestle with a pig, if you do, you will always be stained.

“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,” Oshiomhole told journalists.

Ekiti state Governor, Kayode Fayemi and his Kaduna state counterpart, Nasiru El-Rufai at the National Economic Council meeting in Abuja on Thursday, March 19, 2020. []Twitter/@BashirAhmaad] Pulse Nigeria

It has long been rumoured that Fayemi is interested in the 2023 presidency and that he’s long seen Oshiomhole as too much of an ally of APC godfather, Bola Tinubu, who Pulse has learnt, will also have a say on who flies the party’s presidential flag in the next general elections.

Fayemi’s media rep was not immediately available for comments for this story.