There seems to be no truce in the rift between the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and the governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki, as the former has accused the latter of plotting to destabilise state APC and join other party.
In a statement Tuesday in Abuja, signed by the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the National chairman, Simon Ebegbulem, Oshiomhole accused the governor of being jealous of his popularity in the state.
Oshiomhole further expressed shock that the governor is making every effort to coerce him into giving him details of his movement in Edo State, accusing him of plotting something against him.
“The governor should stop being jealous of Oshiomhole’s popularity in Edo State. He is a man that is at home with his people haven performed creditably well as governor of Edo State.
“So each time he is around both men and women gather round him, particularly APC members and of course the youths.
“It is sad that the governor in his usual style to blackmail the APC chairman now refer the hardworking youths of Edo State as thugs, forgetting that these same wonderful youths supported him during his election as governor.
“Right from Oshiomhole’s days in the labour movement, he has always been on the side of the people, therefore cannot abandon that to please a governor who believes he has monopoly of knowledge.
“Talking about security, it is actually the governor who is making every effort to plunge the state into crisis and bloodshed. The last Saturday’s siege at the residence of the national chairman by his thugs was a good example.
“Before that incident, state government sponsored thugs have been harassing, intimidating APC members across the 18 LGA because the APC leaders refused to adopt his second term aspiration. people are being sacked in their jobs everyday in the state.
“And we have it on good authority that the governor intends to create disaffection and crisis in the state APC and probably dump the party for another party.
“That is why he has embarked on this brigandary which Edo people will resist. So he should stop blackmailing Oshiomhole and face governance which is why Edo people voted him into power.
“We are even more scared now that the governor is making every effort to coerce the National Chairman into giving him details of his movement in Edo State. Who knows what he is plotting again.
“But every evil plot against Oshiomhole will fail. He has not hurt any one and no man except God can hurt,” the statement read.
The APC National Chairman also accused Edo Commissioner of Police, Dan Mallam Muhammed, of being an easy tool in the hands of the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, and desperate politicians.
Oshiomhole claimed that the ‘tribe of politician has unconscionably ensconced himself in the devious plot of feeding the people of Edo State with a misconstruction of himself to galvanise negative public sentiments against him.
Titled ‘Is Edo CP lending himself as a tool in the hands of desperate politicians?’ Oshiomhole in the statement wrote: “I don’t want to believe that the Edo State Police Commissioner, is gratuitously lending himself as a tool in the hands of some desperate and misguided politicians in Edo State whose pastime is to malign the reputation and public image of the national chairman of the APC, Comrade Oshiomhole.”
“Apparently propelled by selfish interest, this tribe of politicians has unconscionably ensconced itself in the devious plot of feeding the people of Edo State with a misconstruction of the Comrade Oshiomhole persona in order to galvanise negative public sentiments against him.
“Commissioner of Police has most probably been taken in by this political gambit of trivializing and rationalizing, by the way he had done, an incident that had serious circumstantial implications for the safety of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
“As much as I try to refrain and restrain myself from joining issues with the Police, I feel obligated to call the Commissioner out on his widely reported statement that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was not attacked.
“While stating a notorious fact, he had somewhat downplayed the very strong connection between Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his home that was attacked. Who were the thugs that laid siege to Oshiomhole’s house in the GRA with a view to attacking him?
“I want to believe that CP Muhammed is a super cop, who should not contradict himself on the facts of a matter that was writ-large and about which his men were seized of. Who, for instance, were the people that pursued the thugs who came to attack Oshiomhole, thinking that he was at home when they struck?
“Of course, they were the policemen and some brave APC youths who got the information that the thugs had laid siege to the residence of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole with a view to attacking him.
Was it not the CP that sent his men to the place to restore law and order? If the CP had claimed there was nothing like an attack, how come he decided to beef up security around the national chairman’s residence?
“I even read where the Police claimed the people who went there were protesters.
Are protests held in the night? The thugs laid siege to the residence of the national chairman of the ruling party at 8 p.m. My thinking is that by now the Police would be telling us about the number of arrests that they have made.
“After all, the “suspects”, purportedly pampered by the Police, had regrouped at Edo Hotel after they had escaped from the scene. Why were they not arrested by the Police at Edo Hotel?
“I know that the Edo State Government is making frantic effort to use the statement of the Police Commissioner that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was not attacked to cover its evil plot and the shame it has brought to itself, but that effort had already fallen through in the face of a number of notorious facts.
“Some questions are therefore pertinent in the circumstance: Was the Police expecting somebody to be killed in the attack on Oshiomhole’s house before it would confirm that political thugs actually invaded or attacked the house? Suppose the Comrade Chairman had run into those thugs on his way back home without knowing about their presence, what could have happened?” the statement read.
