- Idahagbon: Obaseki ‘Has Isolated Himself From Political Class’
- Idahosa: Oshiomhole ‘Causing Great Embarrassment To Buhari’
Following recent political happenings, the camps of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole and Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki have begun to throw tantrums at each other to canvass their respective hardline positions over the Edo APC crisis.
The crisis between the two has led to the factionalization of the APC in Edo as both camps continue to head for a showdown in an attempt to gain the full control of the party structure in the state ahead of the 2020 stand alone gubernatorial election in the state.
Edo has been politically tense since the crisis between Governor Obaseki and his predecessor, Oshiomhole, started.
However, the APC in Edo has been split into two factions, each loyal to one of the gladiators. The faction loyal to Obaseki has ‘suspended’ Oshiomhole while the faction loyal to Oshiomhole suspended the APC chairman in the state, Anslem Ojezua.
Speaking in a recent interview, Oshiomhole’s loyalist and a former Attorney-General of Edo State, Henry Idahagbon blamed the Governor for the role he played in the lingering crisis in the state’s APC.
He said through his actions, Obaseki has isolated himself from the political class in the state, claiming that with the stand of things, he will lose Edo should any election be conducted.
“Of course you and I know that if there is a rematch today the loser will be Obaseki, because he has isolated himself from the political class, he has so delineated the political class, he doesn’t have respect and regards for the political class.
“Today, 90 per cent of the political class will vote for another candidate, not Obaseki, that is the reality on the ground.”
On the defection of Pastor Osagie Ize-lyamu from the PDP to APC, Idahaghon said instead of the drama that trailed his defection, Obaseki should have welcomed Ize-Iyamu and be happy that the APC now has a full house in the state.
With his defection, Ize-Iyamu, who narrowly lost the Edo governorship seat to Obaseki as the PDP candidate in 2016 has reportedly become a threat to the emergence of the latter as the APC candidate in Edo, hence, the current grandstanding.
“And if he were a politician, and have good political advisers, he wouldn’t have done what he did during the official defection of Ize-lyamu. If I were to advice Obaseki, I would have told him that while the declaration was ongoing, he should have drove in to welcome Ize-Iyamu, because he is the number one party man, he is the chief executive of the state, and nobody would have stopped him from coming.
“And if the national chairman was on the podium, embrace him, exchange good handshake with him. If he had done that, it would have send a good signal to so many supporters, the question would have been; are these people really quarrelling? But he decided to stay away because he lacks political knowledge and intrigue and then he decided to put all obstacles on the way so that the event will not hold,” Idahagbon stated.
Meanwhile, Charles Idahosa, a chieftain of the APC loyal to Obaseki’s faction in the state has fired some salvos at the national Chairman of the party, Oshiomhole, criticising him for fuelling the embers of discord in the state.
Idahosa, who is a former Commissioner for Information in Edo state said in an interview with a national daily that Oshiomhole has been embarrassing President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC, stating reasons why he should cease to be the party’s national Chairman.
“The President should just ask Oshiomhole to step aside, he has embarrassed him a lot since taking over as national chairman. He has been causing the President great embarrassment and I don’t see what is special about him that everybody are not bold enough to tell him the truth and are looking the other way.
“Here was a man that inherited almost 25 states when he became national chairman, now he has reduced it to 20. He has been suspended from the party from the ward, local to the state level. A court in Benin last week has granted a request of the state chairman of the party, Anselm Ojezua to publish in national newspapers because Lanre Issa-Onilu, the national publicity secretary partook in illegality. They took a man that has been restrained from parading himself as the state chairman of the party and presented him to President Buhari as APC chairman in Edo state.
” I am aware that President Buhari will not know who is the party chairman in any of the states except maybe in his home state of Katsina. Why will Oshiomhole continue to break laws and causing one problem after another? He came to Benin and turned this place to a war zone. We thank God for the intervention of the Presidency and the IGP, only God knows what would have happened by now. But rather than be happy that a lawful order was made which saved the state from violence and chaos, Oshiomhole started abusing the IGP. There are several national chairmen in this country. Oshiomhole is just one of them. it is just that he happens to be the national chairman of the ruling party. Does that bestow any immunity or special status on him? I think he needs to be told that ‘enough is enough. He cannot continue to embarrass the President. The only thing Buhari has to offer this country is his integrity and his good name.
“A former governor who decamped from PDP to APC and even got turbaned in Daura, the President’s home state is in prison today. We are all aware that the APC governorship candidate who lost out in Adamawa is a senior brother to his wife, yet the President did not interfere. We won all the election in Zamfara but because of the illegality of Oshiomhole, we lost everything to PDP. Why does he think he can continue to engage in illegality and get away with it thinking the President is not aware of it? He was the first person to show contempt and embarrassment for the President when he said ‘if President Buhari can tolerate his ministers to talk to him anyhow, he as the national chairman will not tolerate it,” Idahosa said.
