Gbade Ogunwale, Abuja
MAIN opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has expressed misgivings about a viral video that features the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole and the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari.
In the video, the opposition said Oshiomhole is heard telling Prof Gambari “arrest, deal with …and the whole thing will change”.
The PDP said the conversation had been construed to mean plots to clamp down on its chieftains ahead of the September 19 governorship election in Edo State.
The Presidency had confirmed the meeting between Oshiomhole and Gambari through a statement, on Tuesday, by the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Media and Publicity, Mallam Garba Shehu.
In the statement, Shehu described the conversation between Oshiomhole and Gambari as an innocent one that centred on emerging incidents of violence in the run-up to the election as well as the use of law enforcement to stem the tide.
But at a media briefing in Abuja yesterday, PDP spokesman Kola Ologbondiyan said the Presidency’s admission of the meeting between former APC chairman and the Chief of Staff had confirmed the party’s worst fears.
“It indeed speaks volumes that the Muhammadu Buhari Presidency is trying to rationalise the plot by the godfather of the APC candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Adams Oshiomhole, who was captured on the trending video, plotting to use compromised security operatives to clamp down on certain unnamed Nigerians to achieve political suppression and rig the Edo governorship election.”
“Of course, the Presidency and the APC cannot post a denial because they have been caught and exposed by the Nigerian people…
“By describing the discussion by Oshiomhole and Prof. Gambari, in which Oshiomhole was heard finalising a plot to clamp down on political rivals as ‘an innocent conversation’, the Buhari Presidency has further exposed its complicity.
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“This convoluted admission by the Presidency speaks more of the conversation that must have held behind closed doors with President Buhari.
“Nigerians were further alarmed by the admission that Oshiomhole, the face of the APC campaign, was at the Presidential Villa for discussions on ‘emerging incidents of violence in the run-up to the election’ as well as the ‘use of law enforcement’ in an election in which he and the APC have displayed a desperation to grab power at all costs.
“The question is: when did Oshiomhole become the National Security Adviser (NSA)? When did Oshiomhole become a Service Chief? Is Oshiomhole holding any statutory position in the government or even in the APC, as a party, to warrant a security meeting with the President, if the meeting was not for ulterior partisan purposes on the Edo election?”
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