Politics

Oshiomhole Slams Obaseki Over Attack, Says, 'He's Jealous Of My Popularity'

Published

5 years ago

Oct 16, 2019.

The National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress APC, Adams Oshiomhole, has berated the governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki over the attack on him while he visited the state over the weekend.
Oshiomhole accused the governor of being jealous of his growing popularity in the state.
He revealed this while warning the Commissioner of Police, Edo state command, DanMallam Muhammed in a press statement.
He warned CP Muhammed not to be used to score political point by the state governor. Adding that, he never undermined the security architecture in the state, saying if anything, it is the governor who has engaged in brigandage.
He said “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 the governor of Edo State. So each time he is around both men and women gather around him, particularly APC members and of course the youths. It is said 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 a 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 every day in the state.”
The statement signed by the press Secretary to the National Chairman, Simon Ebegbulem, further reads “I don’t want to believe that the Edo State Police Commissioner, Dan Mallam Muhammed, 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 Adams 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 Adams Oshiomhole persona in order to galvanise negative public sentiments against him.
Commissioner of Police Dan Mallam Muhammed 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.”
It could be recalled that Oshiomhole was allegedly attacked by armed thugs over the weekend when he paid a visit to his home state, Edo.
Meanwhile, the state governor, Godwin Obaseki insisted that the APC National Chairman was never attacked but that as a former governor of the state, he ought to follow protocols whenever he is visiting the state, rather than merely informing thugs of such visit.
The Special Adviser on Media, Communication and Public Affairs to the Governor, Crusoe Osagie noted that Oshiomhole was only trying to escalate security situation in the state. Adding that, the commissioner of police was in the best position to give appropriate account of what transpired over the weekend.
He said “The commissioner of Police has declared the state peaceful but Oshiomhole and his cohorts were bent on making it ungovernable. But this l know, the governor and security agencies would not allow. Oshiomhole as a former governor should not undermine the capacity and integrity of the Police unless otherwise, he is looking for anarchy in the state.
“Oshiomhole has the intention of escalating the security situation in Edo State as he has said in the past that he was going to make the state ungovernable. When he wants to come to the state, he does not inform the governor, the police or the DSS but the thugs. As a former governor he ought to be informing the governor and security agencies each time he is coming into the state.”