Obasanjo attacking me over his loss of relevance -Kashamu

Chairman of the Organisation and Mobilisation Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party in the South West, Mr. Buruji Kashamu, on Saturday explained why he had allegedly become the target of the former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s alleged “wicked campaign of calumny and blackmail.” Kashamu, who was reacting to Obasanjo’s latest letter to National Chairman, PDP, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, in which the ex-President resigned his membership of the PDP, attributed the former president’s alleged onslaught against him to his “perceived loss of political relevance in Ogun State and the South West.” Obasanjo, had, in his recent letters to President Goodluck Jonathan and Tukur, kicked against Kashamu’s continued control of the PDP machinery in his home state of Ogun and the South-West. The former president had also described the PDP chief as a wanted criminal, who should not be seen around Jonathan or made the leader of the party in the South West. But Kashamu in his reaction entitled, ‘Re: Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s Letter to Tukur’, stated that he was not responsible for whatever political woes that had befallen the former president. He added that Obasanjo was only smarting from his alleged loss of political relevance in the South West. Part of Kashamu’s reply read,”My attention has been drawn to yet another letter written by former President Olusegun Obasanjo to the National Chairman of our great party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, frowning on my allegedly being made the leader of the party in the South West. “He called me ‘a wanted habitual criminal…for whom extradition has been requested by the US Government…’ “Ordinarily, I would not have responded to his latest cocktail of lies having sufficiently addressed the same issue in my response to his letter to the President only a few weeks ago. However, since he has shown that he is too embittered to be assuaged by that response, I am constrained to do another. “First, it is now clear to all and sundry that why I have become the target of Obasanjo’s wicked campaign of calumny and blackmail is his perceived loss of political relevance in Ogun State and the South West. In his 18-page satanic letter to President Goodluck Jonathan, I was the other person – indeed the only one (after the President) – that he singled out for his venomous attack. But if the truth be told, I am not the architect of whatever political woes that he is suffering today. “Like David, I am just a tool in the hands of the almighty Allah Subhana wa tala. I am too small to confront a Goliath like him but for the almighty Allah who is the supporter of the suppressed and oppressed. “In his usual hypocritical manner, he talked about not being able to work with me because of his principles and decency. But the questions Nigerians should ask him are: where were these principles when he used me to fight Gbenga Daniel? Where was his self-righteousness when I took the party structure from Daniel and handed it to Obasanjo? “Where was his decency when he brought Gen. Adetunji Olurin to me and asked that I should roll my structure behind his the governorship ambition? Where was his morality when he introduced me to South West PDP leaders like Engr. Segun Oni, Navy Capt. Caleb Olubolade (rtd) and a host of others? Where was his discipline when he hosted me severally in his Hilltop mansion, taking me into his bedroom and innermost recesses? Where was his decency when he accepted donations from me to his church and other concerns?  Where was his gumption when he mounted the rostrum to sing my praises, praying for me as he did in May 2010 during a reception for the former Minister of Commerce and Industry, Senator Jubril Martins-Kuye? I can go on and on! “Let me state from the outset that contrary to Obasanjo’s claim, I am not the leader of the party in the South West. I am just one of the party’s foot soldiers in the zone.