The former National Chairman, All Progressives Congress, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, has apologized to the people of Edo State for supporting Governor Godwin Obaseki to emerge as the state governor in 2016.
He, however, said his mission for now would be to ensure the governor’s defeat in the governorship election schedule for the 19th of September. In a swift response Obaseki said, he had no regrets for not being a stooge of Oshiomhole. Both politicians had fallen apart shortly after Obaseki became governor in 2016. The quarrel persisted until last month when the governor was disqualified from contesting the APC governorship primary, forcing him to switch to the rival Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where he picked up the ticket to run on September 19.
Oshiomhole, addressing a crowd that gathered to welcome him at his Iyamho country home, said: “I have made a mistake by supporting a man who has no vision for my people. So, I want to correct my mistakes by making sure a servant of God, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, is elected as governor and kick the snake out of the government house.
“From now till September 19, I am here in Edo State because a political lion that I am, I am not scared of anything.”
Saying Ize-Iyamu is not a stranger to Edo politics, Oshiomhole stated: “He campaigned for me in 2012 and I won all the 18 local government areas of Edo State. He knows the roots unlike the current governor, who just became governor and does not know the efforts people made to make him governor. We will kick out this MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) governor and replace him with a pastor who will sweep out the Coronavirus party by the grace of God.”
He added that his preoccupation now is to see that the state returns to the path of development.
According to him, “Now the snake that enters our family home, God has driven the snake to where he belongs.
“I have come home to join you and start the process of reclaiming the house back to the family of APC. And if the people say, yes, and God says yes, there is no man born of a woman that can say no.
“So, now I have only one mission and I know it is our common mission: to bring Edo back to the part of sustainable development. “We want to return to the government of the people by the people and for the people.”
Oshiomhole accused Obaseki of highhandedness against APC members in the state.
“The governor was demolishing the houses of our members while some were being jailed for trump-up charges; these are the people who fought for him to become governor,” he said, adding: “I even pleaded with those who were being persecuted to take it easy, that they shouldn’t burn the house we all labored to build because they wanted to smoke out the snake. But now, the snake has been smoked out of the house.”
He said the campaign would be easy because there were visible projects the APC would use to campaign, unlike the incumbent who had been busy signing MoUs.
Obaseki, however, fired back at his predecessor, saying Oshiomhole was unhappy with him because of his refusal to allow him to have a third term by proxy.
The governor, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, said the former National Chairman was disappointed because the Governor refused to be used in his (Oshiomhole) quest to become a godfather in the state.
The statement described the adverse comments of Oshiomhole as just an expression of his frustration over his failure to achieve his goal to govern the state for a third term using Obaseki as a proxy.
“In 2016 when Oshiomhole nominated and supported Obaseki, his hidden motive was used Governor Obaseki who he thought would be a pawn in his game to defraud Edo people and enthrone himself as the ultimate godfather of Edo politics at the expense of the will and wishes of Edo people,”
He said Obaseki’s refusal to mortgage the interest of the majority of Edo people for the satisfaction of Oshiomhole is at the root of the ongoing hostility.
“If Oshiomhole had made any mistake in supporting Obaseki in 2016, it is to the extent that he thought that the governor will submit himself as a tool to be used to hold the collective will and best interest of all Edo people hostage and for this Obaseki owes Oshiomhole no apologies because the interest of Edo people is and will always be greater than the interest of one man” Mr. Crusoe Osagie concluded.
Source: This Day
