N500m damages: I’m ready for you, APC vice chair dares Omisore

The crack in the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) worsened on Thursday as the party’s National Vice Chairman (North West), Salihu Mohammed Lukman dared the National Secretary, Iyiola Omisore, over the N500 million damages demanded by Omisore.

Lukman had on Wednesday while featuring on an AIT programme accused Omisore of mismanaging funds allocated for last year’s Osun governoeship campaign and allegedly causing APC defeat in the election.

He equally accused the party’s national secretary of further dividing the Osun Sate chapter of the party and called for his resignation.

Lukman equally asked the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, to resign for a Christian to take over in the interest of fairness, justice and equity.

Reacting, Omisore in a letter 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 N500m for alleged defamation of his character within 48 hours or face legal action.

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But reacting in a statement on Thursday, Lukman said he is ready for Omisore.

Part of the statement read, “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.”