The simmering row around the Edo state House of Assembly deepened Sunday as the immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, accused his successor, Adams Oshiomhole, of heightening tension in the state legislature.
He said Oshiomhole’s activities against the governor, Godwin Obaseki, amounted to anti-party, and therefore told him to allow the governor focus on the job he was elected to do.
He spoke in a reaction to the decision of APC National Working Committee (NWC) on the crisis rocking Edo state legislature.
What Obaseki says
Governor Obaseki had Saturday accused Oshiomhole, his predecessor, of bias in the lingering crisis over the choice of speaker of the state assembly.
The governor, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, said Oshiomhole, who handed over to him as governor, needed to hear from all sides in the matter before drawing a conclusion.
“We read with utter astonishment a statement credited to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, with respect to Governor Godwin Obaseki’s alleged role in the inauguration of the Edo state House of Assembly.
“Apart from the fact that he based his conclusion on a totally false and baseless premise, we believe that he could have shown that he didn’t have a vested interest by simply inquiring from his friend, the governor, directly, or any official of the State Working Committee of our party to what actually transpired.
“Oshiomhole’s failure to satisfy the basic tenets of natural justice which makes fair hearing from all sides of a matter mandatory, has clearly exposed his bias in this issue.”
Oshiomhole’s statement
Receiving the Bauchi state House of Assembly members-elect Friday, Oshiomhole said: “I am ashamed to talk about it, but there is nothing to hide. We have a similar situation in Edo, where in our case, we have 24/24, all of them APC but somebody wants a particular person as a speaker, 19 out of 24 are opposed to this person.”
Odigie-Oyegun slams party chair
Commenting on the development, however, Odigie-Oyegun said he was yet to come to terms with the fact that Governor Obaseki was receiving the highest distractions not from the opposition party — the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),- but from his predecessor who is also the party chairman.
Speaking through his Special Assistant on Political Affairs, Ray Murphy, the former party chair said: “This party must be stronger because we cannot go into the 2023 general elections with this discordant tune especially as President Buhari will not be contesting. We need to get our acts together. Oyegun has no personal grievances with Oshiomhole but Nigerians must know that he cannot go to equity with unclean hands.
“Today, there are all kinds of rancour coming from Edo state. They all boil down to attempt by godfather and godfatherism that is heating up the polity in the state. Obaseki is the executive governor of Edo state and he should be allowed to exercise the powers vested on him by the law. To what purpose is this idea of the APC chairman putting the state under tension?
“As a governor under APC platform, he should be allowed to run out his tenure before they decide whether to bring him back or not. There are so much antics going on and you don’t need to be a prophet or babalawo (Ifa priest) to trace where they are coming from. They are coming from the APC.
“I want to think that they are all targeted at weakening the governor of Edo state. Ordinarily, the man in Edo should be given every support so that he can succeed to fend off the opposition PDP already around the corner.”
“Ask anybody from Edo state, what is Obaseki’s biggest distraction and they will tell you that his distraction is not whether he has governed well or not, but from his immediate predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole.
“It is very unfortunate especially considering the fact that he is the national chairman of the same party with the governor. I have not heard that PDP or Edo leaders want to remove Obaseki. What has been trending is how his predecessor who happens to be the party chairman does not want him back in the office.
“If his actions against Obaseki are not anti-party, someone should then explain to me what is anti-party. The problem of the APC is from a singular man, the national chairman who runs the party like an executive chairman. The idea of working singlehanded and inducing the party members to endorse is the problem of the party.
“Look at what is happening in the party today. When was the last time the NEC meeting was held? But when these crises came to the fore, he has called several emergency NWC meetings,” he further stated.
APC tackles Obaseki on rule of law
Meanwhile, the party’s NWC insisted the governor should ensure processes leading to election of principal officers of the Edo assembly followed due process.
In a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, the party said, “there is no dispute about the fact that nine people were involved in it. There is no dispute about the fact that what took place, took place at 9:30pm. So what is there to listen to?
“You carry people by 9:30 and purport to have elected a speaker. The danger of that is that if you can do it for speakership purpose, you can also do it to make law that is unpopular,” Onilu stated
