TheNewsGuru

Tag: Oshiomhole

  • Edo Poll: Oshiomhole attacks Progressives Governors DG, calls him pig, empty brain

    Edo Poll: Oshiomhole attacks Progressives Governors DG, calls him pig, empty brain

    Former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole on Monday fired back at the Director-General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Salihu Lukman, likening him to a pig and an empty brain.

    Recall that Lukman had recently told Oshiomhole to take the back seat while the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu markets himself to the electorates. The DG said the Edo campaign was appearing more like a contest between Governor Godwin Obaseki and Oshiomhole.

    Responding, Oshiomhole said: “lt takes an empty brain to suggest that I only want to stage a come back to become the national chairman. For what? To go and do a reset?

    He added that his central role in the ongoing campaign for the election of APC governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, had nothing to do with such interest.

    “So my attitude is not to reply the noise and it is coming from somebody who says he is an employee and appointee of Progressives Governors Forum.

    “He is just like the cowards that are using him that are not able to come out.

    “Otherwise, you should ask this guy, who is now an election expert. He contested for Senate against Makarfi, he lost.

    “He even contested against governor El-Rufai during the primaries and he lost, before Bagudu unilaterally appointed him the DG.

    “So, if he is now the spokesman abusing me and all of that, you want to drag me to his level? No!

    “A gentleman does not wrestle with a pig, if you do you will always be stained and I don’t want to get into that.

    “You want me to engage in a fight with a pig? If you engage in a fight with a pig, the pig already is stained by its nature and you will wear your white garment, and in my own case, khaki to go and wrestle with a pig? I will not.”

    “You see, what I want the media to interrogate is: When I was removed as national chairman, Edo was APC. So do I have to win Edo to become the chairman?

    “Do I look so unemployed? I’m 68.

    “So, what they don’t understand is that, it is not the office of chairman that made me who I am.

    “It is my pedigree from my days as labourer in the textile industry to be the general secretary of textile workers all over Nigeria and becoming the president of NLC.”

  • BREAKING: Oshiomhole, Buhari meet at Aso Villa

    BREAKING: Oshiomhole, Buhari meet at Aso Villa

    President Muhammadu Buhari and a former National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, are currently meeting.

    The meeting is holding inside the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

    Oshiomhole was a regular visitor to the Presidential Villa when he was the chairman of the ruling party, until June when the party dissolved its National Working Committee.

    This meeting is coming ahead of the governorship election in Edo State seen as a battle between Oshiomhole and his successor, Godwin Obaseki, who is seeking re-election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party after he was disqualified from contesting for the APC ticket.

  • ‘Obaseki’s convoy attacked in Oshiomhole’s ward’

    ‘Obaseki’s convoy attacked in Oshiomhole’s ward’

    Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki on Thursday, said his convoy was attacked at ward 10, Apana, Etsako west local government area of the state.

    Adams Oshiomhole, former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), is from the ward.

    In a statement which Crusoe Osagie, his spokesman, issued on his behalf, Obaseki said the suspected thugs behind the attack were dislodged by a combined team of security personnel and vigilante groups.

    A female police officer, who was caught recording the footage of the incident, was also said to have been attacked.

    Addressing members of PDP and supporters at Apana village square, Obaseki alleged that Oshiomhole had made several attempts to scuttle his re-election.

    He said the forthcoming poll will determine who will take charge of the levers of power in Edo politics.

    “As we were coming here (Village Square in Apana), you heard what happened. They went to hire thugs and began to shoot to prevent us from coming here. On September 19, 2020, use your permanent voter card (PVC) to ‘pepper them’,” he said.

    “Ward 10 is a special ward. This election is special. It will show who is in charge of politics in Edo State. For all my eight years in government, you know what I did for Comrade Oshiomhole. He said it with his mouth. I supported him to be the governor. I raised funds for him. I worked for him and Edo State for eight years without receiving a dime.”

  • Is it now Sai Baba and the 40 thieves (2) – Dele Sobowale

    Is it now Sai Baba and the 40 thieves (2) – Dele Sobowale

    Dele Sobowale

    “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.”

    The first part of this series ended last week with the promise to start with facts already established. One of the indisputable truths in the book I am already writing titled APC: CORRUPTION INCORPORATED is the fact that Oshiomhole and Asiwaju Bola Tinubu after accepting Akpabio into their party, called all the leading members of APC in Akwa Ibom State and ordered them to turn over the party structures in the state to Akpabio and regard him as their leader. Akpabio, it turned out had convinced the two leaders that he could single-handedly deliver the state to the APC. Well, as the American circus master, P.T Barnum, said “A sucker is born every minute.” Oshiowhole and Tinubu actually believed Akpabio’s false self-advertisement. I could have told them free of charge that with the blunder, APC lost Akwa Ibom State which it would have won if the original leaders were left strictly alone. More on that in the book which is now work in process.

    Oshiomole’s recruitment of Akpabio paved the way for his appointment as Minister. One must wonder why Buhari and APC chose to reward a person who lost every election including his own race for the Senate. That dreadful error and its consequences could have been avoided if any other candidate from Akwa Ibom State had been made Minister.

    In reality Buhari could not have made a more serious blunder if it was his intention to paralyse the NDDC which Akpabio supervises as Minister. Like a bad chess player, Akpabio, in turn persuaded Buhari to jettison the Board of NDDC which the Senate had approved and to replace it with an Interim Management Committee, IMC, whose legality is in serious doubt. Right now, information reaching us from our scouts in the Niger Delta indicates that the members of the IMC were selected deliberately to do just what we are now finding out about NDDC. More on that later. We now know that among the measures taken by the IMC, which Akpabio invested with great trust, was to award N1.3 billion to themselves and the staff of the Commission as “COVID palliatives”. So far, they have told us how much the IMC, directors and staff got. But, the figures don’t add up. Somebody else not mentioned got some of it. And from sources inside NDDC, I know who.

    “How, NDDC paid staff N655m for training, foreign trips during COVID-19 lockdown..” PUNCH, July 25, 2020 p 14.

    Just as Buhari is responsible for Akpabio, the Minister is also responsible for the actions of the IMC he recommended for appointment and still defends – however incoherently. Now, the public knows that “the total cost of the trip was N85.6m paid to 14 staff members to travel the United Kingdom…the travellers include the MD/CEO, Prof (Daniel) Pondei, the Executive Director, Projects, Dr Cairo Ojuogboh and another Director, Mr Luke Ibanga”. How any officials will travel to see students they have left stranded and turned to beggars is an unresolved mystery. How they flew out and returned during airports’ lockdown worldwide is a puzzle to unravel. One other enigma is why the Minister is defending the NDDC IMC. The figures presented still don’t add up. Did the Minister also travel or receive “COVID palliatives”? If so, how much? Nobody defends grand larceny so strongly without benefiting from it. As late Chief MKO Abiola had once observed: “Nobody stands all day in the rain for nothing”.

    Last week I made it clear that despite the overwhelming evidence that Buhari has failed in his war against corruption, there is no evidence available to me that he benefited from the monumental APC corruption. Buhari reminds me of President Shehu Shagari of the Second Republic. After an exhaustive inquiry by Buhari’s military junta, Shagari and his Vice President, late Dr Alex Ekwueme, were totally exonerated from any taint of corrupt self-enrichment while in office.

    In the same manner, I want to declare that there is no credible evidence in my possession to think that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has so far benefited from corrupt practices. But, the exoneration of the two leaders does not extend to their subordinates. Ranking higher than the NNDC in my league of corruption-ridden agencies of the FG is the Social Investment (aka Intervention) Programme, SIP. More public fund has disappeared without trace through this programme alone in four years than in all the years of the NDDC or OMPADEC which it replaced.

    Only the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC and the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, can furnish us with more names of public safe-crackers than SIP. Like Buhari and Shagari before him, Professor Osinbajo trusted his subordinates absolutely and gave them a free hand to operate. It was a grave error. If ever a comprehensive audit of the SIP is conducted, it will reveal more rogues than Buhari could have imagined possible. The senior staffs of the agency and their contractors have robbed the poor and the school children mercilessly.

    Remember that silence always means consent. Below is what was written about SIP before. No rejoinder has been received. None will ever come.

    “SIP: POOR NIGERIANS SWINDLED AND NOW ABANDONNED

    “It was beautiful and simple; as all truly great swindles are.”

    O. Henry. 1862-1910. VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, p 239.

    “You cannot adopt politics as a profession and remain honest”.

    Louis McHenry Howe, 1871-1936, VBQ p 192.

    Have you heard the great good and bad news delivered in one line of the 2020 Budget presented by President Buhari? Well, let me tell you. The budget for the Social Investment (or Intervention) Programme, SIP, introduced to alleviate poverty, provide N5000 per month for five million poor Nigerians, feed the nation’s school children and engage over 100,00 graduates as teachers – among other false promises – had been reduced to N38 billion. That is part of the good news. At least the monumental fraud will not continue. From 2016-2018 and 2019 respectfully, N500bn, N500bn, N500bn and N350bn were the budgets for SIP which was the biggest scam in Nigerian public history – never mind Professor Sagay. His clients at Abuja have perpetrated the biggest financial scandal involving any one programme since independence in 1960. This article is partly meant to educate our dear Professor of Law – on Economics.

    The bad news is that without coming out and confessing it, Buhari and the All Progressives Congress, APC, after using the SIP gimmick to achieve second term, have now completely abandoned the poor people. Not even Lai Mohammed can now deny that N38 billion cannot possibly help Nigeria’s nearly 100 million poor. The APC had used the alimanjiris to win the second term and in its very first budget after the elections had stabbed them in the back. There will be hell to pay for that. The entire episode actually now demonstrates how cynical and ruthless Nigerian politicians can be. Granted, only a fool will believe the utterances of those who take up a profession which in Nigeria has become a hybrid of prostitution and banditry. But, to toss out millions of people at the first opportunity after “stealing” their votes with false promises smacks of the sort of heartlessness seldom seen in Nigeria. Wahala will follow. Mark my words.”

    That was the prediction last year when Buhari presented Budget 2020.

    “There are only two families in the world; my old grandmother used to say. The haves and the have-nots. Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616, VBQ p 87.

    And BIG WAHALA has followed the fake and unfulfilled promises. Instead of lifting millions of people out of poverty as Buhari promised on May 29, 2015, he has added so many more millions to those he found in dire need such that Nigeria has now during his tenure become the Poverty Capital of the World. Consequently, all over Nigeria now, the Have-nots have taken control – especially in the North – where bandits call governors in Kaduna, Katsina and Zamfara to negotiate the ransom the government must pay as a condition for temporary peace. The peace invariably last until the bandits run out of money and it dawns on them that there must be more where the last batch came from. It has never occurred to the governors that they are actually providing funds with which the bandits procure more weapons!!! At any rate, the bandits are keenly aware that the amount given to them is often less than the figure claimed by government officials. The Northern Invisible Market consisting of corrupt government officials, bandits and gun runners is a very active one.

    “Justice delayed is justice denied.” US Justice Louis Brandeis, 1856-1941.

    Brandeis, an Associate Supreme Court Justice, who has an elite Jewish university named after him in Waltham outside Boston, USA, was a strong believer in the prompt dispensation of justice. He frowned on litigants seeking long and needless adjournments when they had a weak case – irrespective of who was dragging their feet. Brandeis would have been livid with rage with regard to how Nigeria’s current Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation, AGF, had delayed cases involving former Governors and other highly-placed and politically-exposed individuals since he ordered all the case files transferred to the Ministry from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC. Some individuals, who have cases with the EFCC, are now Ministers or appointees to top position. One of them is now busy messing up his Ministry and its major agency with atrocious revelations.

    Meanwhile, the EFCC, which the AGF supervises is neck deep in charges and counter charges with the AGF himself being fingered in some of the corrupt atrocities like appointing a company already charged with grave crimes as auctioneer for seized assets in the company’s sector. We cannot quickly forget Malami’s role in bringing back and reinstating Maina charged with embezzling billions from the pension scheme.

    Malami is number three in ranking in government after Buhari and Osinbajo. He is by our constitution, the nation’s chief law enforcer. But, a situation in which the AGF of Nigeria appears to be more sympathetic to enemies of the state should worry us. Top law enforcers, like Caesar’s wife are expected to be above reproach. And, once again we are reminded of the observation by late Chief MKO Abiola. “Nobody stands all day in the rain for nothing.”

    What is Abubakar Malami getting out of these suspicious activities which delay justice?

    To be continued…

  • Edo 2020: Oshiomhole, calm down, let Ize-Iyamu market himself – DG, APC Govs forum

    Edo 2020: Oshiomhole, calm down, let Ize-Iyamu market himself – DG, APC Govs forum

    The Director-General of the Progressives Governors Forum, Dr. Salihu Lukeman, has cautioned Adams Oshiomhole, a former National Chairman of the party over his involvement in the governorship campaign in Edo State.

    Lukman urged the former APC National Chairman to “calm down”, adding that the party’s governorship candidate in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu should be allowed to lead his own campaign.

    The DG of APC’s PGF, in a statement also urged Oshiomhole to adopt the campaign model of Bola Tinubu, National Leader of the APC that allows the party and candidates to market themselves.

    “As opposed to reconciliation, it is loud drums of war that has taken over the airwaves in Edo State. Comrade Oshiomhole has relocated to Edo State and taken over the APC campaign.

    “The APC campaign is personalised around Comrade Oshiomhole and the candidate of the party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is an onlooker.

    “We need to appeal to Comrade Oshiomhole to ‘calm down’. This campaign is not about his person.

    “If the Edo State APC campaign is to go ahead this way, when APC wins the election who will run the affairs of the state as Governor? Is it Comrade Oshiomhole or Pastor Ize-Iyamu? If our party wants Edo people to vote for our candidate, Pastor Ize-Iyamu must be very visible and be seen as the face of the campaign.

    “Comrade Oshiomhole should take a backseat and play the facilitatory role our leaders play in all similar circumstances. Lagos state governorship election since 2007 present a good model. Without any doubt, our leader, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, may be argued to be very influential in the emergence of candidates, from Babatunde Raji Fashola, Akinwumi Ambode to our current Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.”

    Oshiomhole and the state Governor, Godwin Obaseki have been involved in a face-off that led to the Governor’s disqualification from APC ahead of the party’s primary election.

    It is widely believed that Oshiomhole was behind Obaseki’s disqualification due to their irreconcilable differences.

    Against this backdrop, Obaseki had defected to the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, were he emerged as the party’s governorship candidate for the September 19 election.

  • Oshiomhole overheating Edo polity – PDP

    Oshiomhole overheating Edo polity – PDP

    The Peoples Democratic Party National Campaign Council (PDPNCC) for Edo governorship election has advised the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole not to overheat the polity of Edo state.

    Mr Kola Ologbondiyan, the party National Publicity Secretary, who is also the Secretary of the Publicity sub-committee of the campaign council gave the advice at a news conference on Monday in Abuja.

    “We strongly caution Adams Oshiomhole to stop overheating the polity of Edo and the nation just because he and his candidate have no agenda to market to the people of Edo.

    “Oshiomhole should remember that Edo is called the heartbeat of the nation and he should not create a crisis that would have a spiral effect on other parts of our country.”

  • Edo: Obaseki is a snail in race with tigers, never a threat to APC – Oshiomhole

    Edo: Obaseki is a snail in race with tigers, never a threat to APC – Oshiomhole

    Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said that Governor Godwin Obaseki, who is the flagbearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the coming Edo Governorship elections, is not a threat to his party.

    Oshiomhole made the remarks during an interview on Channels TV’s Sunday Politics, while responding to a question about whether Obaseki’s popularity was a threat to his party.

    “How can he be a threat? A man who is not even eligible to contest elections? How can a snail be a threat in a race where tigers are involved?,” he said.

    The ex-APC chairman had earlier said that he was confident in the party’s governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu’s ability to lead the state on the path of progressive development if elected in the September 19 governorship election.

    Meanwhile, the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Mr Philip Shaibu, has accused Oshiomhole, of wanting to covertly seek a third term in office as the governor of Edo State through his alleged surrogate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

    Shaibu, in a statement by his Senior Special Assistant on Media, Benjamin Atu, titled, ‘Oshiomhole seeking the third term as a governor through Ize-Iyamu,’ said the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress was seeking a third term by proxy.

    He said, “The truth is that Ize-Iyamu is merely a stooge. The real man seeking the governorship position is Adams Oshiomhole who has perfected the plan to betray democracy by seeking a third term in office. The price that Oshiomhole will pay for projecting Ize-Iyamu is an outright rejection.

    “Oshiomhole is displaying blind compassion with a specific pledge to return the state to the path of backwardness with failed institutions where individuals will be more powerful than government institutions with an analogue system of operations. Technological development has since left Oshiomhole behind in the scheme of things.”

    The deputy governor said the state had a choice between policies of the heart by Governor Godwin Obaseki and policies of the head as currently being propagated by enemies of the state.

    “The people of Edo State subscribed voluntarily to the principle of Obaseki because they have seen these principles at work all over the state. We cannot risk the future of Edo State with a man’s shrunken aspirations.

    “Our campaign is based on the affirmation of what we have done and still capable of doing, by drawing our strength from the masses to deal with all our vulnerabilities,” he said.

  • Oshiomhole has always campaigned in poetry

    Oshiomhole has always campaigned in poetry

    By Abiodun Adekunle

    It may not be out of the context of a sincere analysis of the Edo political space to assume that the former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is a major issue in the September 19, 2020 governorship election.

    Apart from the two major contestants, Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the APC, the other person directly linked to the two is Oshiomhole.

    It was Oshiomhole, who brought Obaseki in 2016 and sold him to the people of Edo. But to convincingly market him, he had to destroy his main challenger, Ize-Iyamu. The aftermath of those scathing words, left in the trail of the pastor’s destruction, is yet to subside.

    Interestingly, four years after, the situations have switched places. Oshiomhole no longer wants his beloved friend, Obaseki, who had done everything humanly possible to destroy his benefactor without as much a reason other than blackmail. And, in his place, Oshiomhole would rather the man he claimed was a no-do-good some four years ago.

    Today, on both sides, Oshiomhole comes handy as a principal campaign tool. While the PDP thinks the former APC chair had done sufficient reelection work for them four years ago with his strident de-marketing of the pastor, the APC is struggling to explain that his words do not hold true of the person of the pastor.

    It is, however, smart and strategic, that the APC has tried to let those things remain in the past and refusing to engage the opposition on a cheap character debate. But are the words of a campaigning politician in an election really bankable, especially, those that have not been subjected to scrutiny or thorough fact-check?

    It was a former governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, one of whose sons, Andrew, is the current governor of New York and another, Chris, with the CNN, who said you “campaign in poetry and govern in prose”. There’s nothing more to add, because his words are self-explanatory.

    Although a renowned political blogger in the US, Kathleen Kelly Reardon, tended to disagree a bit because of the misinterpretation that seems to be adduced to it often, not much could be taken away from it still.

    She wrote: “Whenever I hear this phrase, I shudder. It’s usually said as if we’re supposed to accept that candidate lying during election campaigns is fine. Recently, CNN’s Chris Cuomo attributed this phrase to his father, Mario Cuomo. But out of context it can have a different meaning than his father intended.

    “I remember hearing Mario Cuomo speak eloquently at Stanford University about how getting rich is fine so long as you give back. He cared about the underserved and also about the truth,” she explained, a disposition that is not far from Oshiomhole’s.

    Continuing, she explained further: “Elizabeth Kolbert of the New Yorker considered the poetry vs. prose phrase one of many melancholy ones Mario Cuomo repeated. These tended to have a dose of reality within them gleaned from years of experience in politics.

    “Campaigns do involve putting one’s best foot forward from the perspective of those you wish to influence. But this observation is not an acceptance of political duplicity.

    “Words matter. The more we hear ‘campaign in poetry and govern in prose’ as advisory, the greater the risk that lying will become acceptable even as it dupes the electorate and undermines democracy.

    “Campaign in poetry and govern in prose can be misused effectively to justify duplicity by the duplicitous among us. When that happens, we’ve abdicated our responsibility to expect honesty from those who aspire to lead,” she added.

    The truth is that Oshiomhole is not duplicitous as the writer fears in her submission, but simply campaigning in poetry by putting his best foot forward, only for election purposes, which of course, turned out as he envisaged. And to be honest, this has always been Oshiomhole: campaigning in poetry!

    What Reardon did not envisage, also, is the inanity of the opposition to misapply mere campaign rhetoric for a thoughtless mischief. Unfortunately, for the PDP, the Obaseki they are desperately hawking to sell to the Edo people, they also condemned just months ago, alleging he had stolen all of Edo’s money.

    Therefore, if in their reckoning, all they were doing at the time was play politics, in what slant are they going to dismiss the obvious that Oshiomhole, four years ago had only campaigned in poetry without meaning a line of all he said about Ize-Iyamu, more so that none of those things could pass a simple test?

    It is public knowledge that Oshiomhole talks too much and does not always filter the words that proceed out of his mouth. This does not change the fact that Oshiomhole is by all standards a good man, who means well for his people of Edo State and Nigeria in general.

    On the contrary, the PDP and the Edo people must be wary of the nature of Mr. Obaseki, who history has vindicated today as coming from a family of traitors that hold no loyalty to friendship or reciprocity of good deeds. He delights only in his greed. He had said far too many kind things about a man, who made him what he is today than to turn around and deny himself.

    This is why we will rather pay attention to a man, whose worldview and philosophy are deserving of a serious study, owing largely to his underpinning historical character traits and whose treachery should not be entertained or tolerated by anyone worth his salt, especially those who boast enviable upbringing.

    Thus, in the September election, the problem is not what Oshiomhole said four years ago and which have been found to be untrue. The problem lies in the fact that a certain Governor Obaseki is today living true to the warnings handed Oshiomhole, when he mooted the idea of fielding him as his successor. If there’s anyone who is duplicitous and undeserving of the votes of the Edo people, it is the double-faced Obaseki, whose unconscionable nature is irredeemable.

    *Adekunle wrote from Lagos

  • [TNG Analysis] Edo 2020: Positive vibes for Obaseki as Wike, Tambuwal, Okowa others lead PDP campaign train

    [TNG Analysis] Edo 2020: Positive vibes for Obaseki as Wike, Tambuwal, Okowa others lead PDP campaign train

    …Oshiomhole’s pleas hit rock
    …Oba of Benin warns ambitious guber aspirants
    …as Ekpoma monarch asks Oshiomhole to come back after guber polls in September
    By Emman Ovuakporie
    The campaigns in Edo State are in top gear as Godwin Obaseki gets positive vibes from the three Senatorial Districts of the heart beat of the nation.
    TheNewsGuru.com, (TNG) in this analysis takes a peep as to how the ruling party, the All Progressives Congress, APC and the major opposition party in Nigeria have fared so far.
    Obaseki and his party in the last one week showcased that the reign of the APC is at the verge of going extinct in a state it once controlled for more than a decade.
    While the Adams Oshiomhole led campaign has been receiving negative vibes, the Obaseki camp led by the most vocal Governor in Nigeria, Nyesom Wike has been receiving positive vibration.
    Wike without mincing words has told Edo electorates that the election was a foregone conclusion as Obaseki has no opponent.
    In 2016, Oshiomhole had properly de-marketed Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu with all manners of unprintable graffiti.
    In Edo State you can conveniently call Edolites names but that of a doubtful character is always seen as a taboo.
    Oshiomhole had used such words to describe the person he now campaigns for barely four years after.
    This singular development has made it almost a walk over for Obaseki who has remained steadfast as the campaign progresses.
    His deputy Comrade Phillip Shaibu too has been on the prowl telling Edolites that the state will be turned into rubbles if the All Progressives Congress (APC) gubernatorial candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, wins the forthcoming election.

    Shaibu said Edo had witnessed a lot of institutional growth where the government was supreme and not an individual but the victory of Ize-Iyamu and his godparents would change all that.

    Oshiomhole has been receiving very uncomfortable signals as some monarchs are already asking him to visit only after the guber polls in September a clear indication that he has been rejected.

    A monarch he sent packing few weeks from his departure from Dennis Osadebey Government House simply advised him to come back after September 19.

    His pleas fell on deaf ears in Edo Central that he massively marginalised for 8years as Governor.

    Edo Central arguably has the highest number of professors in Edo State scattered all over the world but while as a governor, the District was thrown into archival dustbin.

    It’s pay back time and the Esan people are waiting for the former comrade governor to preach the one man one vote mantra.

    Oba of Benin warns

    Disturbed by the show of shame by thugs in front of the Oba of Benin Palace, the Benin Traditional Council sent a warning signal to ambitious guber aspirants to steer clear of the palace.

    Read the full text of the statement below:

    PRESS RELEASE
    APPEAL FOR PEACE IN EDO STATE
    BTC.A40/VOLLVIII/227
    29th July, 2020
    The Benin Traditional Council observed with dismay the unruly behaviour of some youths outside the gate of the Palace on Saturday, 25 July, 2020, when His Excellency. Governor Godwin Obaseki and some other PDP Governors visited His Royal Majesty, the Oba of Benin.
    The Benin Traditional Council wishes to state that His Royal Majesty, the Oba of Benin warmly welcomed the august visitors, led by His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, Governor of Edo State. The meeting was cordial. During the meeting. His Royal Majesty recalled the warm reception accorded him by Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State and Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State when the Omo Oba paid a “Thank You’ visit to those states. The courtesy visit of the esteemed august visitors to the Omo Oba ended very well.
    We were therefore surprised to hear later that there was an incident outside the Palace, directly in front of Oredo Local Government Secretariat. His Royal Majesty condemns this unruly behaviour that occurred in front of the Palace.
    We wish to reiterate and emphasize once more that the Benin Throne is not partisan. The Benin Traditional Council uses this medium to advise all political party members not to turn Edo State into a war zone because of gubernatorial ambition.
    His Royal Majesty is committed to peace and tranquility in the state and, peaceful up coming gubernatorial election.
    The Palace enjoin all well-meaning indigenes of Edo State to join His Royal Majesty in continuous prayers for peace and tranquility in Edo State and peaceful up-coming gubernatorial election.
    Long live Edo State.
    Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria
    Oba ghato kpere, Ise.
    BENIN TRADITIONAL COUNCIL
    (Frank Traber). Secretary Benin Traditional Council.
  • Oshiomhole’s sudden U-turn on Ize-Iyamu is great insult to Edo people – Wike

    Oshiomhole’s sudden U-turn on Ize-Iyamu is great insult to Edo people – Wike

    Rivers Governor Nyesom Wike has boasted the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) candidate in the forthcoming Edo governorship election Governor Godwin Obaseki has no opponent.

    Speaking on a live programme on Wednesday, Wike said the people of Edo already knew the type of candidate the All Progressives Congress (APC) presented to them following what Adams Oshiomhole said about him four years ago.

    Wike, in a statement by his Commissioner for Information and Communications, Pastor Paulinus Nsirim, said: “Such a character cannot be accepted by Edo people as Governor during the election.

    “I respect the Benin tradition and I know that Edo people are educated to know that Oshiomhole cannot play on their intelligence.

    “If he is now retracting what he said of Ize Iyamu, who is sure that he’s saying the correct thing now.

    “Adams Oshiomole’s sudden u- turn is a great insult on Edo people. This is an opportunity for Edo people both at home and in the diaspora to use their votes to tell Oshiomole they cannot take his lies anymore.

    “From all indications, it is obvious that there is no strong opposition against Obaseki and he will win convincingly”.

    Wike, who is chairman of the PDP National Campaign Council, stated he and his team accepted the responsibility to lead the campaign because they are satisfied with results coming out already from Edo State.

    Wike said the PDP had continued to take steps in strengthening the nation’s democracy with the promotion of internal politics and resolving conflict of interests of members to achieve common goals.

    He said the success recorded by the PDP in conducting free and fair party primaries in Edo state was evidence of the internal democracy in the party.

    The governor said all the aspirants decided to work together to support the candidature of Obaseki

    He said: “It was not easy to have a sole candidate for the party in Edo state. People thought there will be problems, given the fact that Obaseki was coming from another Party.

    “But Party members who are grounded and believe in the Party didn’t see any sacrifice too much to make.

    “Even in Ondo State, the former Deputy Governor, Agboola Ajayi who decamped to PDP contested keenly during the primaries and lost . If there are other pending issues in the South West, be sure that the Party will resolve them.

    “That is exactly what Delta State Governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as the chairman of South-South States’ Governors had done.

    “He is making sure that we are all on the same page to ensure that all states in the South-South are controlled by PDP”.