Following the suspected anti-democratic practices orchestrated by All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole in Edo State, a chieftain of the party in the state and former Political Adviser to Oshiomhole, Mr. Charles Idahosa, has called for the resignation of his former boss as the national
chairman of the party.
Idahosa, who was the Political Adviser to
Oshiomhole while the latter served as state governor, alleged that Oshiomhole was
desecrating the temple of democracy by sponsoring anti-democratic practices.
Speaking at a press conference in Benin-city, the
state capital, on Thursday, he said: "We are all not very happy with what is happening
in Edo State today, especially with the political division and the confusion.
This is a situation in which we ought to be very happy. This is very strange! What
is happening is a tragi-comedy. We have a governor who was brought up by a
political party and the people out there are very happy and commending him for
working very hard. He is very popular and you will attest to that, but the
problem is with the leadership of the party."
He continued: "While the voters are very
excited, the people who brought him into power are not happy with him because,
according to them, he is not carrying them along."
On the crisis rocking the APC in state, Idahosa said
the governor has repeatedly told leaders of the party that he has no issue with
the APC national chairman, adding that "but Oshiomhole has refused to say
'I did not send anybody to form any group against the governor. I have no
problem with the governor’. Silence means consent. Why has he not said a word? It
is a matter of simply saying, 'I sent them or I did not send them’."
The APC chieftain said the disagreement has
snowballed into the state House of Assembly, adding: "I make bold to say
that Oshiomhole is responsible for the problem of the APC in Edo State today by
his silence, and people like us know that these boys in the streets are his
boys. I am not his boy because we are contemporaries. Oshiomhole's refusal to
speak means he is supporting them because I do not see anything wrong for him
to come out and say he did or did not send them."
According to him, Oshiomhole is to be blamed for
the crisis in the state APC. He has created division in state party.
He said during Oshiomhole's eight-year term, he was
the leader of the party, and we all deferred to him as our leader. “How come he
is finding it so difficult to allow Governor Godwin Obaseki to superintend over
his space as our leader in state?"
"Since you came in as a national chairman, you
lost five states in your first outing. How can we lose Oyo State, the heart of
old Western Region? We lost Rivers State. The bucks stop on your table as the
chairman. In a decent society, he should have resigned. He shouldn't wait for anybody to tell
him. Today we have no foothold in the
Southeast region."
Idahosa decried the unilateral disposition of the national
chairman of the party in decision-taking process on strategic issues concerning
the party.
He chronicled the antics of Oshiomhole since his entrance
into the political landscape, pointing out that the former governor has always
believed in suppressing the ideas of others.
Idahosa wondered why Oshiomhole has refused to
react to claims that there is a rift between him and Obaseki which the governor
however denied, pointing out that silence is consent.
The Edo APC leader explained that no past governor
ever intruded in the activities of Oshiomhole, and advised him to allow Obaseki
to continue in his desire to deliver the dividends of democracy to Edo people
who voted for him.
While recalling with nostalgia the uncomplimentary
remarks by Oshiomhole on prominent sons of Bini extraction like the Esama of
Benin, Chief Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion; his son Lucky Igbinedion, who is a
former governor of the state; the late Samuel Ogbemudia among others, Idahosa
said it was high time the Bini people worked together to avoid re-occurrence
and put the Bini in the position that rightly fits them.
Idahosa averred that Governor Obaseki has impacted
positively on the socio-economic wellbeing of all Edo people and therefore
deserves another four years in office.
He urged the Bini people as majority tribe to
maintain leadership as governor of the state.
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