Fresh crisis in APC as Omisore slams N500m suit on vice-chair over Osun guber funds

The ruling All Progressives Congress has been embroiled in another round of crisis as the APC National Vice Chairman, North-West, Salihu Mohammed Lukman, accused the party’s National Secretary, Sen. Iyiola Omisore, of mismanaging the funds deployed for the July 16, 2022, governorship election in Osun State.

This is just as Lukman said the APC National Chairman, Sen. Abdullahi Adamu and Omisore, should be removed following a Muslim-Muslim presidency of the President-elect, Bola Tinubu, and the Vice-President-elect, Sen. Kashim Shettima.

The APC deputy chairman had, on Friday, said Adamu and Omisore should be removed to ensure religious balancing.

He stated that Adamu should be replaced with a Christian, adding that Omisore should be replaced because his emergence had divided the Osun State chapter of the party.

He stressed that any member of the APC National Working Committee (NWC) who “is not a unifying leader in his/her state should be changed”.

However, Lukaman, in an interview on the Africa Independent Television (AlT) on Tuesday, March 14, accused Omisore of mismanaging funds deployed for the 2022 governorship election in Osun State.

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Reacting, Omisore stressed that he neither received any money to prosecute the Osun governorship election nor did he mismanage the campaign funds.

The APC National Secretary, in the demand notice signed by his lawyer, Gboyega Oyewole, SAN, demanded within 48 hours a retraction of the said libelous statement and an apology to be published in two major newspapers and several online news outlets as well as “the payment of the sum of N500 million as damages for malicious statement against our client.”

Oyewole said:  “Our instruction is that during an interview on Africa Independent Television, AlT, on March 14, 2023, which was published in several online news blog, social media platforms, television stations, and news media outlets, including on March 15, 2023, by Amiloadenews.com, an online news blog, you made a libelous and defamatory statement of and concerning our client.

“In the said interview, you besmirched the character and integrity of our client, Senator lyiola Omisore, in the following terms: ‘And that is where we are and that is partly what is producing some of the unhealthy development in (the party).

“For instance, Osun State, which is part of the reason I said the National Secretary has failed, in terms of stabilizing Osun and uniting people. Part of the issue with that is that I am aware the party has given some campaign funds to Osun which was handled by the National Secretary and to some extent, he has either mismanaged it but more importantly, he is not accounting to anybody and you have to activate the process of accountability’.

“Our client has informed us that your statement is not only false, misleading and without any factual basis but malicious in all material respect. It is by the reckoning of our client, a deliberate attempt sponsored and/or designed to malign his image and his political stature as a leader of note in Osun State, the South-West geopolitical zone, and Nigeria as a whole.

“It is important to reiterate that the spurious allegation made in your statement of March 14, 2023, against our client is false in all ramifications as our client was neither given any money to prosecute the Osun State governorship election nor did he mismanage the non-existing campaign funds.

“It is clear beyond doubt that your statement and publication was a political ploy with the intent to impugn the reputation and integrity of our client and unjustifiably and unwarrantedly assassinate his character in the eyes of right-thinking members of the public.

“Our client has consequently directed us to request for a retraction of your libelous statement and publication and an apology to be published in two major newspapers and several online news outlets not later than 48 hours of the delivery of this letter and also the payment of the sum of N500 million only as damages for malicious statement against our client,” the demand notice read.

The Star