The quest for power and supremacy in the Edo State chapter of the ruling party between the National Chairman, Adams Oshiomole and his successor Godwin Obaseki continues to hit the headlines on daily basis en route to the gurbernatorial election slated for next year.
Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki on Friday claimed his immediate predecessor and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, wanted to use the state House of Assembly to remove him from office.
The governor made these claims during an expanded meeting with leaders of the APC from all the wards and local government areas in Edo North at Jattu-Uzaire, Etsako West Local Government Area of the state.
Obaseki said, “Oshiomhole thought he was setting a trap when he chose Philip Shaibu as my deputy and Osarodion Ogie as Secretary to the State Government. He was thinking that we would always quarrel, fight and then run to him to settle issues.” According to the Governor, Oshiomhole cancelled the primaries conducted by the party ahead of the 2019 general elections and did his own to carry out his alleged plans to remove him from office. Obaseki said, “He cancelled the primaries that were initially done by the party at the state level for the 2019 general elections and did his own because he could not control us at the executive (level). He manipulated the legislature so he could use the House to remove us.”
According to him, the party and its members do not support godfatherism in the state.
He added, “If you behave like a godfather, we will fight you.” He reiterated Oshiomhole remained suspended from the party until he apologizes to the party. Obaseki said, “If you cannot be a disciplined member of the party, you will leave the party, whether you are the national chairman or not.”
He insisted the National Chairman could not take any action on behalf of the APC because he was validly suspended from his ward.
“Can you imagine a national chairman that is creating problems in his own house? Because of that, we had to suspend him and he remains suspended. We pray that God should have mercy on him because he has done something bad against God and the people of Edo State; he should find his way back into the party and apologize to all of us. If he comes back remorseful and apologetic, we will consider taking him back.” the Governor added.
The Governor seized the opportunity to rebuff claims that he was leaving the ruling party.
In defence of the National Chairman. a spokesman, Washington Osifo, said he was not aware of any plan to remove Obaseki from office.
“I don’t know what Obaseki means by anybody manipulating election,” Osifo, who is one of the 14 members-elect of the state Assembly yet to be inaugurated, said.
“If he says the Assembly election was manipulated, it means his own election was also manipulated because he (the chairman) played a role in Godwin’s election, even in his primary. So, I don’t understand what he means by manipulation.”
He added, “We don’t know what he has done and what he intends to do. Impeachment is not for fun, it is the consequence of an action so if he has done something that he thinks impeachment should be its consequence, we are not aware of it. So we are now asking ourselves what he has done that he thinks impeachment is its consequence. So for us, we are also not interested in what he has done and for him to say that the National Chairman manipulated us into office, he needs to be told that some of us are better qualified than him.
“When I was in the executive as a commissioner, he was just a mere adviser. He calls himself a technocrat but I have never seen a company that he floated and succeeded with. He didn’t have a job, that was why he came to Edo State to be advising Comrade Oshiomhole. He knows the quality of men that we are and that is why he is afraid of working with us.
The camp of the APC is clearly not together, do you see this as an opportunity for the PDP to re-claim power in the State?
