The Director-General of the Progressive Governors’ Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman,
has been chided by Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) stakeholders for accusing the national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole of causing problem in the ruling party.
The PGF boss had on Sunday wrote a memo to the chairman of the APC National Reconcilation Committee, Chief Bisi Akande alleging in the lengthy memo that the national chairman and his national executive committee were responsible for the crisis rocking the party.
In a swift reaction, the Edo State APC stakeholders, in a statement by their leaders, Chief Francis Inegbeneki and Alhaji Suleiman Bagudu, said Lukman’s memo was “as malicious as it was insulting”.
The group gave the director general seven days to withdraw the “offensive statement” and apologise to the national chairman or risk a legal action.
The statement accused Lukman of gangsterism, adding that the PGF boss has turned himself to a PDP man, masquerading as an associate of APC governors.
Faulting the memo, the stakeholders said it least expected anything better from the DG, whom it said has exposed himself from the day Lukman decided to market his soul to those who were afraid of the on-going reforms in the APC being spearheaded by the Oshiomhole -led National Working Committee.
According to the stakeholders: “For so long, we have kept quiet to his tantrums against the APC National Chair, thinking that himself and his co-travelers, including Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, would turn a new leaf but they have persisted in their evil plot against Comrade Oshiomhole.
“Comrade Oshiomhole is not in the same category with small-minded men, like Lukman, who are making frantic efforts to please their pay masters.
We are aware of his nocturnal visits to Edo Government House where he leaves with Ghana-must-go bags,” the statement alleged.
Stressing that the rationale behind Lukman’s memo was not only full of mischief and motivated by compromised conscience that was not out to promote reconciliation, the group argued that the DG should not have sent the memo to the press before making it available to the committee members.
“The point we make is that the memo he had prepared for the Bisi Akande committee should not have got to the press before members of the committee”.
The group also called on the Chairman of the APC Governors’ Forum, Governor Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, to call the DG to order unless he is the one fueling the insults against Comrade Oshiomhole.
The group observed that “it is even an insult on the governors to see their national chairman being attacked persistently by their DG.
It is uncalled for and unacceptable to us. Edo APC will not tolerate any attempt to take Oshiomhole for granted by bread-and-butter men like Lukman,” the group warned.
The stakeholders threatened to expose Lukman’s dealings with the Edo State government for the world to “know how deceitful he is. Indeed, Lukman lacks the moral standing to talk about Oshiomhole. He should go and contest election or keep his mouth shut.
“We find that statement as malicious as it was insulting and we have given the sychophantic DG of the Forum 7 days to withdraw the offensive statement and apologise to Comrade Oshiomhole or risk a legal action”.