On April 4, Oshiomhole, a former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), during an event to mark his 70th birthday in Edo, said he was seeking to represent Edo North in the upper legislative chamber.

The senatorial aspiration of former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, is in the news for the wrong reason over his appointment of an ex-convict, Abdulganiyu Lawani, popularly known as Abu Millionaire as his campaign organisation Director-General, SaharaReporters has gathered.

On April 4, Oshiomhole, a former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), during an event to mark his 70th birthday in Edo, said he was seeking to represent Edo North in the upper legislative chamber.

“As I have spoken for Nigeria as the president of the NLC before — as a non-state actor — I believe that as a senator and with your support, your interest cannot be ignored in the red chamber in Abuja. With you supporting the project [for me] to be the senator, I will be the senator representing Edo north,” Oshiomhole had said.

On March 29, he was declared the candidate of the party after garnering 309 votes, while his opponent, Senator Francis Alimikhena, had five votes.

Multiple sources told SaharaReporters that the newly appointed Director General of the Adam Oshiomhole Campaign Organization, Lawani is an ex-convict, sentenced to Kirikiri Correctional Centre in Lagos for armed robbery.

Around the time he got into trouble, it was said that Abu Millionaire was in the military and got dismissed for the same offence he was convicted of.

“Abu Millionaire as he is fondly known is a native of Warrake in Owan East Local Government. He had served in the Artillery Unit of the Nigerian Army but got involved in an armed robbery operation while in army uniform. He was arrested, charged and tried in a competent court of jurisdiction and subsequently sentenced to a prison term of five years,” one of the sources told SaharaReporters.

“This was in the mid-1990s. He served his five-year jail term at the Kirikiri Medium Correctional Centre. He was thereafter, dismissed from the Nigerian Army.”

Another source added that since he got his freedom, Abu Millionaire has been finding his level in politics and social circles where he is a big spender at parties.

“His past and commanding position in the circle of louts in Edo have also served for something among some top politicians in the state, who pay him allegedly for unwholesome reasons.

“This holds true of his once-upon-a-time relationship with Senator Francis Alimikhena, the Senator representing Edo North in the National Assembly, which was of mutual benefits.

“At the height of it, Alimikhena gifted him a Toyota Hilux vehicle before their relationship went south on account of the political intrigues that characterized the emergence of Oshiomohole as Edo North senatorial candidate of the APC, at the expense of the Senator, who sought the same ticket of the ruling party.

“The ex-governor's choice is being received with excitement in PDP circle, while it is causing ripples among members of APC in the state as many feel he is not worthy of the office based on alleged intellectual disability. Equally, his appointment is viewed in some quarters as a disservice to his principal’s ambition,” he said.

Meanwhile, the APC Edo North Senatorial Women Leader and former Commissioner for Environment and Sustainability in the state, Chief Dame Omoua Oni-Okpaku, has resigned from her position over Lawani’s appointment.

Oni-Okpaku, in a statement, said she “cannot in true conscience work with Abdulganiyu Lawani as the DG of the Campaign Organization at the senatorial level.”

Calls put across by SaharaReporters to the media aide to the former Edo Governor, Victor Oshioke, were not answered nor returned.

A text message sent to his mobile line had not been replied to at the time of filing this report.

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