Cowards in Progressive Governors Forum using DG against me – Oshiomhole alleges

—denies staging a comeback to head party as Chairman
Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole on Monday accused those he described as “cowards” in the party’s Governors’ Forum among other chieftains, were allegedly using their Director General (DG), Salihu Lukman to attack him.

Oshiomhole who came hard on Lukman spoke while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after a closed-door meeting with President Mohammadu Buhari in the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Recall that the DG had last week accused the former APC National Chairman of frustrating the Caretaker Committee to ensure that he is returned as the party’s chairman.

The Caretaker Committee that was inaugurated in June 24 was given a mandate to conduct a National Convention by December to usher in a new National Working Committee (NWC).

But, Oshiomhole who yesterday took a swipe at the comments, declared that he would not dignify the Forum’s DG with a dirty fight.

He said, “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 you white garment, and in my own case, Kaki to go and wrestle with a pig? I will not.

“It takes an empty brain to suggest that I only want to stage a comeback to become the national chairman. For what? To go and do a reset?

“My attitude is not to reply the noise and it is coming from somebody who says he is an employee and appointee of Progressives Governors Forum, 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 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 and I don’t want to get into that.

“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 a 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. 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 is this that I used to override The Godfathers in Edo State for two consecutive terms and even got the governor elected through elections, no violence before becoming the national chairman.

“So, if you remove the office…is like our president now, though I cannot compare myself to him, but it is like President Muhammadu Buhari by 2023, when his tenure would have lapsed as President but those who believe in him, in 2024 and beyond, each time they see him, that trust they have in him will always be there.

“He bonds with the people, that bond was not created by the fact that he is the president, in fact, he became the president because of that bond.”

The former Edo governor said he was at the presidential villa to appreciate the president and pledge his “absolute” loyalty to him.

Though he expressed confidence that the APC will emerge victorious in the election, Oshiomhole revealed that his visit was to also request for more security for the conduct of the September 19, 2020 poll.

He said that whoever was found wanting either among the opposition PDP or the ruling APC should be brought to justice.