Akinwande Soji-Ojo
The crack in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) widened on Thursday as the party’s National Vice Chairman (North West), Dr Salihu Lukman, dared the National Secretary, Sen Iyiola Omisore, over the N500 million damages demanded from him by the former deputy governor of Osun State.
While featuring on AIT on Wednesday, Luk man had accused Omisore of mismanaging funds allocated for the 2022 governorship campaign in Osun State, which he claimed caused APC’s defeat in the election.
He also accused the National Secretary of dividing the Osun Sate chapter of the party and called for his resignation.
Lukman equally asked the APC National Chairman, Sen Abdullahi Adamu, to resign for a Christian to take over in the interest of fairness, justice and equity
Reacting, Omisore had in a letter addressed to Lukman through his Lawyer, Gboyega Oyewole (SAN), asked the party’s vice chairman to retract the defamatory statement against him in two national dailies and several online media platforms and pay him the sum of N500 million for defamation of his character within 48 hours or face legal action.
But Lukman, in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday, said he is ready for Omisore.
“I am in receipt of the letter from Lords & Temple, signed by Mr. Oyewole, dated 15th March, 2023 (the letter was actually wrongly dated 15th March, 2022).
“Since Sen. Omisore’s response to the request for accountability is to threaten legal action, I have also instructed my lawyers to respond appropriately to his legal threat.
“Both our National Chairman, Sen. Adamu and National Secretary, Sen. Omisore must demonstrate willingness to make sacrifices to earn the respect and followership of Senators-elect and House of Representative members-elect.
“I make this appeal respectfully and without any ill-feeling to anyone, including Sen. Omisore. I stand by my position that Sen. Omisore is unable to unite party leaders and members in Osun State, which is responsible for why we lost the election.
“He is opposed to any demand for accountability and is resorting to acts of intimidation to perhaps manipulate processes of appointment into the Asiwaju-led federal government,” the vice chairman said.
This is not the first time Lukman will accuse Omisore of polarising the party in Osun State.
The vice chairman had demanded Adamu and Omisore’s resignation few hours after the party’s candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, was declared as president-elect by INEC on March 1.
Lukman had asked Adamu to resign in the interest of justice and also urged Omisore to step down from his position for breaking the party into factions in Osun State.
