Amaechi Admits Leading Campaign to Remove Oshiomhole as APC National Chairman

Former Rivers State Governor and ex-Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, has disclosed that he played a leading role in the removal of Senator Adams Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

Amaechi said his involvement in the move was responsible for the former Edo State governor’s continued criticism of him.

The African Democratic Congress (ADC) vice-presidential candidate made the disclosure during an interview on Rapid TV, while responding to Oshiomhole’s recent description of him as “shallow” and “unreliable.”

He alleged that Oshiomhole was unhappy because he led the group of party stakeholders who worked to remove him from the APC leadership, insisting that the senator lacked the capacity to manage the party’s affairs.

Amaechi said he had no regrets about his role in the former APC chairman’s removal, adding that Oshiomhole’s current attacks were connected to the political disagreement between them.

The former minister also challenged Oshiomhole to make his academic qualifications public after the senator questioned his intellectual depth.

Listing his academic credentials, Amaechi said he had obtained degrees in Law and Literature, master’s qualifications in both fields, as well as a certificate from the University of London and a master’s degree from King’s College London. He added that he was pursuing another master’s degree in Global Political Economy.

He also recalled that Oshiomhole had supported his emergence as chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, questioning why the senator would now describe him as intellectually inadequate.

The disagreement followed Oshiomhole’s remarks in an earlier interview, where he accused Amaechi of inconsistency in his political positions and criticised his decision to attack the APC and President Bola Tinubu after previously serving in the party’s government.

Oshiomhole had also questioned Amaechi’s political credibility, citing his past criticism of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and his description of the PDP presidential primary that produced Atiku as fraudulent.

The senator alleged that Amaechi changed his position after Atiku approached him for political cooperation.

Oshiomhole further accused the former Rivers governor of mismanaging public funds and abandoning projects during his administration in the state.

However, Amaechi dismissed the allegations, questioning why Oshiomhole waited 12 years after his tenure as governor to raise such claims.

He maintained that the accusations were false, arguing that the senator did not raise them while he was in office or in the years immediately after leaving government.

Amaechi subsequently said he would no longer respond to allegations from Oshiomhole, adding that the senator was free to make whatever claims he wished.