Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has terminated the appointment of Faustines Ovienrioba as the Executive Director of Community Development.
The termination takes immediate effect.
A statement yesterday in Benin, the state capital, by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media and Public Affairs, Prince Kassim Afegbua, directed Ovienrioba to hand over government property in his possession to the Office of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG) within 24 hours.
•Governor calls for calm
Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has said the May 29 handover date of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) administration to the All Progressives Congress (APC) cannot be postponed.
The governor said no one can postpone Christmas.
Oshiomhole spoke at the weekend in Benin, the state capital, when he received some defectors from the PDP.
He said: “You heard what happened. They said they have postponed the elections. Few days back, they called us to a meeting at the Council of State and we said they should go ahead and do the elections. In any event, we are not the only country with security challenges. Even elections are held in Afghanistan and Iraq.
“So, whether they postpone the election or not, we won’t fight. They can’t postpone Christmas. I want to appeal to all of you, nobody should be angry because I know you were ready for Saturday’s election. Only a debtor thinks tomorrow is far. Everybody has seen they don’t want elections. They sponsored discussions on television, Jega said INEC was not the issue. So, they came up with security. If they like, let them keep coming up with issues; elections will hold.
“So, I ask you: just take it easy. These six weeks will cost us more resources and time because we thought we will do the election, get through with it and get on with our lives, but they decided to postpone the election, to prolong it but let me ask you, a child that is due to arrive after nine months, how long can you prevent it from birthing?
“APC is already in power, by the grace of God. They can postpone the election but they cannot postpone May 29 handover date. Two wrongs don’t make a right. Don’t fight; make peace: We will use the remaining six weeks to mobilise more, pull out more people from the PDP so that Edo State will be 100 per cent for APC.”
The governor expressed joy and praised the courage of the defectors for dumping the Peoples Democratic Party to pitch tent with the party that is set to bring the much desired change and development to the country and assured them of level playing ground in the All Progressive Congress.
He said: “I am really grateful to all of you that have joined. You can fool some of the people some of the time but you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. I want to promise you that together, we will continue to build a new digital political soft structure on top of which we can build all the other things.”
Over 300 PDP members defected to the APC.
They were led by Chief Sunny Erhengbo; a former PDP House of Representatives aspirant for Ikpoba Okha/Egor, Dr. Friday Omokaro and Edo State Head of Security, Goodluck to Goodluck Campaign Organisation, Mr. Fred Ikhuebor.
•Pays December salary
Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has urged the people to remain vigilant and security-conscious as Nigerians join the rest of world to celebrate Christmas tomorrow.
In his message to the residents, the governor noted that while many states under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were unable to pay salaries for up to three to four months, the Edo State Government had met its salary obligation till date.
He said next year would afford Nigerians a unique opportunity to vote out PDP’s bad leadership, which had been a clog in the wheel of the nation’s progress.
Oshiomhole said: “Despite the economic hardship and lean resources accruing to the state from the Federation Account, the good news is that the state government has paid all workers in the civil service, including the teachers, their salaries for December 2014 to enable them enjoy the Yuletide with their loved ones.”
Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has accepted the resignation of the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Prof Julius Ihonvbere.
Oshiomhole thanked Prof Ihonvbere for his services to the government and the state.
The governor, in a statement yesterday in Benin, the state capital, by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Mr Peter Okhiria, wished Prof Ihonvbere well in his future endeavours.
On the fourth anniversary of the demise of his wife, Clara, Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has said he missed her spiritual guidance and intercessions.
The governor said these were the major elements in building their family and making him a more compassionate person.
Oshiomholwe spoke on Sunday at a memorial mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Iyamoh, Uzairue, Etsako West Local Government Area, when he led his children and other members of his family to the fourth year anniversary of his wife’s demise.
Mrs Oshiomhole died on December 7, 2010.
The governor said his late wife was humble to a fault.
He said: “My late wife was my spiritual guardian. When I met her and proposed to her, she said: ‘I know you are a Christian, but are you baptised?’
“I listened to the bishop talking about the most important title as being the baptism name. I realised even the more what she helped me to accomplish by insisting that I must formally get baptised. She encouraged me to study Catechism, which I needed to be baptised, and I was baptised with the name Eric.”
He added: “Coming to this church is more than symbolic because Clara’s interest in this church was something I may not be able to describe.
“When she was alive, she was constantly reminding me of the need to support the community to build a church, even as a labour activist. She would always remind me to be certain that we had provision for the church.
“I believe in all we have done. What would excite Clara most is the effort we made to build this church to this level. I imagine how she would have felt to begin to worship in this church.”
The governor stressed that his family agreed to have a low key anniversary with a thanksgiving and prayer at the church because it was the first time the anniversary fell on a Sunday.
He said: “We are not arranging any big ceremony. We are not inviting the whole world. We are not setting up big canopies to celebrate, to dance. Nor are we crying because if Clara were with you and you asked her how she would want to be remembered, I know she would say: ‘Let’s go to church and pray.’”
In his homily, the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Auchi, Rev. Dunia, recalled the life and times of the late Mrs. Oshiomhole.
The cleric urged Christians to live a righteous life.
He said: “During her life, Clara Oshiomhole focused on heavenly things. She lived a fulfilled Christian life. That is what Christianity entails.”
Prayers were offered at the graveside of the governor’s wife for the repose of her soul.
Oshiomhole laid a wreath at the grave side.
All Progressives Congress (APC) chieftain Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon is the Chief of Staff to Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole. The senatorial aspirant spoke with SEGUN AJIBOYE on his ambition and other national issues.
Is the governor aware of your senatorial ambition?
It would be an act of irresponsibility for the Chief of Staff to the Governor to enter a very sensitive race like that of the Senate without informing his principal. In fact, that would be political suicide and that would be putting it mildly. To answer your question epigrammatically and succinctly, I will say yes, Mr. Governor is aware that I am in the race. But of course, you know Mr. Governor, he is forged in the furnace of democracy, he is forged in the furnace of popular participation in the electoral process. So, being a chief of staff, not withstanding, he is giving a level playing field to all those who are interested in the senate race. And for that matter, any of the seats is thrown open. Only the people will decide.
There is a long list of aspirants gunning for the office. What makes you feel you have the edge?
I am quick to say and quick to admit that my brother, Hon. Samson Osagie has discharged his parliamentary responsibilities quite resoundingly. There is no doubt about that. Having admitted that, but let me also say that my parliamentary pedigree is copiously in the public domain for the people to appreciate. 12 years of my work in parliament, people will bear testimony that I have used the parliament as an instrument of social engineering. I have no doubt at all that the people will decide. In any case, given my very rich background, I am a robot in the hands of God.
What were your achievements in the House of Representatives to give the courage to go for a higher post?
I had many projects attracted to my constituency. One, I drew the attention of the Federal Government, using available tools of the budget provision to ensure that lots of solar street lights were put in my constituency. I attracted the renovation and reconstruction of primary and secondary schools in my constituency. Beyond that, I brought about the provision of industrial boreholes in my constituency. It will interest you to know that it was, flowing from my historical motion drawing the attention of the Federal Government to the very perilous and precarious state of Ore-Benin-Lagos road that the president gave the then Works minister a marching order to come and look at the state of that road, following which hurried attempts were made to fix the road. The point I am making here is that I dint concentrate attention on my constituency, which is Oredo federal constituency. I saw myself as a global player.
Your colleagues saw you more as a comedian when you were in the House. Do you intend to continue with the trend, if you are elected into the Senate?
The oxymoron in this observation is that sometimes when I hear people laugh themselves into a state of coca oral in reaction to my speech, whereas they are amused by my communication, I myself get amused as to why they are laughing. At times, I say to myself it is either something is wrong with me or something is wrong with my audience. But, like I have always posited, I have never set out to advertently obfuscate my audience. Nor have I deliberately set out to deposit my audience in a portmanteau. It is just that I put my nose to the grindstone. I am inebriated in my aqua of self immolation. And when you do this over a period of time, it comes like the rattle of a gun. So if you ask whether I am deliberately setting out to do that, I would say except I do not talk any longer. But parliament is a place where you must talk. So, it comes out like the rattle of a gun.
Some of your critics say you are not really comminucating…
You see, it is just that we are lazy these days. Like I said, it is just that people are not putting their ears to the grindstone. The question that should be asked is ‘are my oracular oration figments of my imaginations?’ Are they not subjects of literary studies? So, it is for people to rise up from the intellectual laziness and have the willingness to improve their grave matter. For example, I say to people that 50 percent of what people call my verbal armory come from newspapers. Interestingly, the media is the sources of my metal strength. For the past 20 years, I have read nothing less than seven newspapers on daily basis. And when I read them, my wife says to me ‘are you preparing for exam?’ There is hardly any columnist in a national newspaper that I don’t know. I can recall with nostalgia, great debates that put columnists at antipodal dialectical directions at each point in time. And every day, I get nothing less than seven new words or phrases from writers. I go for my dictionary to get the meaning of such words.
Do you speak in this manner at home?
I speak Benin at home.
Why did you face legal battles during your time in the House?
The fact that I see myself as a global player by my share contributions on the floor of parliament is not attenuated by the court case I had. Let us not forget that in a political race, various political parties have their interests. And my major political opponent at that time said, rightly or wrongly, that my election did not meet legal integrity test. Of course, he has legal and constitutional right to do that. And so, he went to court, got victory at the tribunal and I got victory at the Court of Appeal. Those are normal political attestations.
How would you describe your experience as a lawmaker and a chief of staff to a governor?
The two are quite different, especially coming from a parliamentary background. Let me bring into focus here, I had done eight years in the state House of Assembly. So, it was 12 years of my life in the parliament before I had the rare priviledge to be appointed by the governor to come and serve as a chief of staff. In parliament, you have a latitudinarian canvas to titillate and titivate the solar plexus on national questions.
Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, marked the sixth anniversary of his administration penultimate Wednesday with a promise of better days ahead, among other things. In this interview with some journalists, including SEGUN AJIBOYE, the governor speaks on current issues affecting his state as well as salient national issues. Excerpts:
You are in the last quarter of your administration. What should the people of the state expect from you in the next two years?
We would have to sustain the present tempo. There are a couple of projects that are on. We would do everything to ensure that all those projects are completed. We have the Benin-City water storm master plan, it is a very ambitious project that has been designed to de-flood Benin. We have made substantial progress, almost 60 to 65 percent. I am very hopeful that we would complete it. And by the time it is completed, the flooding problem of Benin would have been substantially addressed. If we didn’t do it this rainy season, people would have been under water. It is a very important project. We are also working on the Central Hospital, and we are hopeful that we are going to complete it. The first phase of it, which is the emergency unit, we have been assured by the contractor that it would be ready by January. The second phase of it would be ready by the middle of next year. My hope is that we would put in the latest state-of-the-art medical equipment. It is designed like what we see when we go to other parts of the world, where when you see a hospital, you may mistake it for hotel, clean and neat. It is not just about good equipment, but also good environment.
When you put people in a place that is dirty and unkempt, even people who are healthy are likely to fall sick. So, we want to have a signature hospital with modern technology. We have lots of experts who are willing to come home in spite of the low pay. The hospital reflects my conviction that whatever anybody is doing in the 21st century, you should look ahead to the 22nd century. You should ensure that it meets the best now, so that 50 years down the road, it would still be useful. But when you build a room and parlour hospital, like I see in most places, which even by today’s standard looks archaic, two years down the road, it is no longer useful. There are certain equipment that you cannot fit into certain hospitals. For example, where you do radiography and mammography, these are special units that require concrete walls, not brick walls. This hospital has modern features and is designed to suit current and modern trend of technology in the healthcare sector. I am very proud of it and at the same time very confident that we would complete it. Aside from that, we have good roads, good drainage, a world class hospital, beautiful primary schools, very attractive secondary schools. Then, we would have laid a good and solid foundation for the next government to build on.
The states are already complaining of shortfall in revenue from Abuja. Don’t you think this will affect some of these projects?
Those are serious worries. It is not the states alone, even the Federal Government is not paying salaries as and when due. I just read that National Assembly workers are protesting non-payment of salaries. Those are federal employees. I know that some states across the country, north south and west, are owing salaries up to two three months, even with oil performing at 180. From the time the issue of subsidy was dealt with one way or the other, and the exposure about fraud a number of persons perpetrated in the name of subsidy in collaboration with some officials in certain agencies, the character of the problem had changed from oil subsidy to that of oil theft. The talk about oil theft had coincided with the end of the oil subsidy scam. There are still some issues about how much is allegedly spent on oil subsidy. There are very serious accounting problems.
But crude oil theft has also assumed a national embarrassment. The last time we looked at the figure in the crude oil committee, made up of governors, officials of the ministry of petroleum, JTF and others, we saw that sometimes, as much as 700, 000 barrels are stolen on a daily basis, and sometimes sustained over a period of two weeks. Sometimes, we are told this is not due to theft, but that part of it is lost to pipeline vandals. But those vandalising pipelines are not doing it for fun, they want to steal oil. All of that still falls into the category of oil theft. And when you ask yourself the question, what has changed about the Nigerian territorial waters that we didn’t hear about this volume of oil theft in the past? Yes, we used to hear about illegal bunkering and who protects them, but it was not such to affect what accrues to the Federal Government.
We had never received 100 percent of our share from the federation account even when oil was performing at $180 per barrel, even though the benchmark was the highest, $79 per barrel. This means that we should have had huge savings of about 40 per cent, which means the excess crude account should have been approaching $20 billion. As far as I hear, there is nothing in the excess crude account. This is not because we have shared any money but we were told they have used the money to fund SURE-P or they have used the money to fun subsidy, whether it is petrol or kerosene. But as far as I know, the law is clear, you are not supposed to fund your SURE-P from excess crude account; it is supposed to be the savings of the additional money consumers of petroleum products are paying consequent of the marginal increase on petroleum products the last time.
Excess crude should be funds that have not been spent and can only be spent on the authority of the stakeholders, which are the state governments and the Federal Government. Every dollar that accrues, the Federal Government gets 52.8 percent, while all the 36 state governments and the federal capital territory share 26 percent of the money. So, all the money spent in Abuja and all the money the 36 state governments are spending, all put together, is 26 percent. The Federal Government alone spends double of that, over 52 percent. When you divide 26 by 37, which includes the FCT, what accrues to Edo is about less than one percent. So, if we have built schools in Edo, that is what we spent, if we have paid salaries, built hospitals, built roads and provide water, that is what we spent.
So, for you understand the scale of the problem and the issue, Edo people want to see more federal presence in Edo than that of the state government. For every kilometer of road we have done, the Federal Government should do two because they are holding 52 percent in trust, while all the governors of the 36 states and the FCT are holding 26 percent. For me, those are the issues. But my fear is that when you have a bumper harvest and your children are hungry, what would happen when you have famine. But I have told some people that who knows, they say necessity is the mother of inventions. When the situation gets to the point where there is no oil left to steal and you exhaust your CBN financing through bonds and all that, you don’t have to be an economist, the Federal Government is already devoting as much as 80 percent of the budget to recurrent and only 20 percent to capital, and by the time you provide for debt servicing, definitely, everything that the Federal Government spends on capital project is borrowed, which is why the debt profile is rising.
If you were incurring this when the price of oil is doing $180 per barrel, then you don’t need any professor of economics to tell you that there would be crisis when the price drops. So, I can see the CBN resorting to the so-called waste and means. What it means is that they will print naira notes just to meet the naira needs, because the hard currency is not there. That means massive devaluation of the national currency, which will trigger hyper inflation. And when the cost of living escalates, workers would demand for higher wages to compensate for falling purchasing powers. And some attempts to deal with that will lead to upward review of personnel cost, and you would have effectively found yourself in a very terrible vicious circle, and I am very worried about that.
During a recent function in Benin, President Goodluck Jonathan said the state will fall to the PDP in the next election. Your party had also complained about the conduct of the distribution of the PVCs. As a governor, what do you think can be done to avert rigging in the next election?
If you recall, under the NPN and the UPN, incidentally the NPN was at the federal level and had entrenched the culture of rigging. Their leaders became boisterous and arrogant. They were so arrogant that they misled themselves to think that any state can fall to the then NPN. They tried the trick in the old Ondo State, where Akin Omoboriowo was declared the winner of an election he had lost. They had FEDECO pronouncing him the winner, but the people of the state said he was not the winner. I think Nigerians are now sufficiently committed to democracy. And anybody who is bent on a strategy of rigging would be a poor student of history. In any event, I think this president has been fortunate. He has been deputy governor, governor, vice president, acting president and then president to complete Yar’Adua’s tenure. He was then elected on his own account by votes cast in the east, west, north and south of this country. Any Nigerian who has been honoured with that position has no reason to be desperate. I expect him, like I do myself, to look at where I am coming from and where God has put me and ask myself a question, ‘what do I want now? Whether I govern for two years or three years, what people would remember you for is what you were able to do while in office’. In fact, people are respected more for bowing to the wishes of their people than to be damned for holding unto power against the wishes of your people. So, if Jonathan had completed the term of his predecessor and won an election on his own account, then Nigerians have done him a world of good. Therefore, whether he won or lost the next election, what will define his place in history is how he conducts that election. My understanding of history is that the place of a leader in the history of a country is not in how long he holds unto power. The president must resist the hawks in the PDP who will be urging him to use the military to rig the election. It is his own place in history that is at stake and he has to choose what he wants. I don’t have to go outside this country to find examples. Gen. Abdusalami Abubakar took over power under certain circumstances following the sudden death of Gen. Sani Abacha. It is interesting that Gen. Abacha got into office and allowed himself to be derailed by praise singers who started saying he was the only who the cap fitted. All the five political parties that were formed found no one good enough in their parties and ended up adopting Gen. Abacha.
This issue of collecting signatures was also at play. One Kalu organised a two-million-man march and Julius Berger constructed a very big podium for the event. Every hungry political elite went into that game. It is on record that only one man, there are many others, but one of the most, who had the courage to dismiss that make-believe, was the late Chief Chief Bola Ige. He referred to the parties as five leprous fingers of the same hand, and that no decent Nigerian should touch any of them. It, therefore, appeared that Abacha was not only the commander-in-chief of the armed forces, but also of the Nigerian people, including the political elite, such that they all endorsed him as the only candidate.
Is there any particular incident involving you that you can remember about that period?
I remember that there was a programme organised in Abuja under the Abacha Foundation. It was organised by Col. Lawan Jafar, who was then Military Governor of Kaduna State. I was one of the few invited to speak, even though Gen. Abacha had proscribed me. He enacted four decrees to disqualify me from being eligible to contest the presidency of the Nigerian Labour Congress, as if it is a Federal Government parastatal. They invited me, maybe to find out whether I had been harassed into submission. Chris Garba, a former Military Governor of Bauchi State, was the chairman of the occasion. Speakers took turn to eulogise Abacha and urged him to accept the call of the people to transform to a civilian president.
The theme of the event was ‘Civilianising the military and militarialising the civilians: which way forward for Nigeria?’ Many of my friends were afraid and said I should not go, but I said no. I said the day I cannot go anywhere and speak my mind, then I have nothing to live for. You see, I was not born in a nursing home. I was born under the tree with the assistance of some elderly women in my village. Only few people survived such birth, but I have survived. I have come this far not because I am strong, but because of the support of God. So, I went there.
Before I left Kaduna, I had told my wife that I didn’t know when I would come back. I told one of the speakers that I was shocked by his submission, and that his speech was very untypical of the average Nigerian, because I am one. I turned to a General at the forum, and said, though I am no longer an officer of the NLC, but on behalf of myself and other Nigerians who think like me, I dissociate myself from his submission. I said how could you apologise to those who killed the Sardauna, Akintola and others? And I turned to another of the speakers and said, you reminded us that your military governor has a master degree. Who told you that the military is meant for the illiterates? There are military officers who are doctors. We have military officers who attended the best schools around the world. I concluded that the topic was not appropriate at all. I said none of the officers consulted me when they wanted to join the army, they therefore, don’t need me to make up their minds.
And as for militarialising the civilians, I said, as you can see, I don’t have the height to join the army. But if there are Nigerians who want to join, they are free to pick the forms and do so. To my surprise, everybody clapped. While I was expecting the worse to happen, some men approached me and told me they were men of the State Secret Service (SSS), but that they were happy with what I said. They promised that nothing would happen to me. They said I spoke the truth, that it was people like those people that were deceiving Abacha.
Let’s look at the crisis in the state House of Assembly. The PDP members have continued to disobey the ruling of the courts. How long would this continue?
I am a believer in the rule of law. If you were to go by the theory of the survival of the fittest, I am not the most endowed. I would not have been the governor of this state when you have the big boys. That I am here is the courtesy of the rule of law. God favoured me with courageous judges to interpret the law. And so, regardless of my frustrations sometimes with the legal procedures, I have to learn to respect the principle of separation of powers.
So, all we have to do is what is being done, which is to draw the attention of the court to the fact of contempt of court, at the first instance, the high court, and later, when they went on appeal and were ordered to go back and obey the court order. And when the police blocked the heart of the city to protect these people to disobey the court order and paralysing the economic life of the city, the Speaker of the House, in his wisdom, having regard that earlier in the year, they had provision for the renovation of the assembly complex in their budget, decided to relocate to the old chamber. Incidentally, the old chamber was first used in the old Mid-West Region.
It was also used under this dispensation when the PDP had about 90 percent of the members. Therefore, it was not a new thing. They relocated there and published the appropriate public notice about their relocation. But the PDP lawmakers have chosen to disobey the court order and to continue to stay in the chamber under renovation. But the good thing is that since the assembly members relocated to the old chamber, the police no longer have any excuse to block the Ring Road, which is the economic centre of the city. They go there to do what Edo people now call ‘Africa Magic channel nine’. But the assembly now meets in the old chamber and I had the privilege of presenting the 2015 budget and they went through it in line with the provisions of the House. The budget has been approved and I have signed it into law.
So, Edo is working; the parliament is working. But there are those who want to cause maximum distraction. For the first time in our history since the creation of the Mid-West State, I am on record, courtesy of God, that I am the first governor to win election in all the 18 local government areas. It has never happened before. In Edo South, which accounts for about 53 percent of the population, I won in all the 77 wards. In Edo North, I won in all the 64 wards. And I won about 85 to 90 percent of the wards in Edo Central.
This has never happened before. And that is why the people refer to my election as 18/18. I think the PDP feels that I have exposed them by the number of works we have done. The people now begin to regret what they lost in the years of the PDP. We started from zero point because they did nothing. And that is why the people are asking for reparation from the PDP. The PDP can plan all the evil, but as a Christian, I say the devil is a liar. And in this instance, the PDP is a liar; Edo will never fall.
There are rumours about you being looked at as a presidential running mate. What is your take on this?
Let me tell you this, I don’t believe in this tradition of some Nigerians who, when they want something, they will say they have been called upon by their people. When a leader assumes office, not because he is convinced but because people are pressurizing him, such people never make it. And that may explain some of the leadership crises we have in the country.
When I wanted to contest for the office of the governor, the late Gani Fawehinmi, though there were others, but he went as far as writing in the newspapers that ‘Here is a lion who has reduced himself to a Lilliputian by contesting for a state governor when he could have contested for the presidency’. But I went to him, and I said: ‘Sir, yes I am clear about the problems of Nigeria. I believe I have what it takes. But my history at the NLC, at which point he knew me, did not begin in the NLC. I started as a steward in a textile factory and became the organising secretary of the textile union.
I later rose to become the general secretary of the union many years later, and then as deputy president of the NLC and later the president’. I told him that looking at the reality on ground, popularity is one thing but converting that popularity to electoral success requires some work, and that critical to that work is time and money. Gani said people would contribute money to my campaign. I told him that I was not going to make any difference if I run on the platform of a party that I have fought when I was in the NLC. And the only party, which could offer me that platform of the presidency was the Labour Party, which the NLC formed.
But we had just formed the party at the time, and there were no structures. I am a realist, and so I contested for the governorship, not because people called on me to run but because I knew I could do it. I also know that you don’t contest for the office of the vice president. To answer your question of if my party picks me as a running mate, this is not the right time for such question. In my tradition, you don’t ask a man that is not married whether he would like to have a baby boy or girl, or what name he would like to call such baby.
You first pray that such man finds a wife. After that, you could pray that you would come back after nine months to celebrate the birth of a baby boy or girl. Having said that, for now, the task of the APC is to find that presidential candidate that will represent the change that Nigerians are yearning for, and which represents the symbol of the party. If I have any contribution to make now, it is to contribute to that process which will ensure that the presidential candidate that will emerge is one that will command the respect and affection of Nigerians. Once that is done, nothing else matters.
Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole has told his Ekiti State counterpart, Ayodele Fayose, to face the task of governance rather than drag his (Oshiomhole’s) name into the “political gangsterism” that is associated with him.
In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Peter Okhiria, Oshiomhole said: “We find it laughable and childish for Fayose to seek to drag Oshiomhole’s name into his “crude gangster tactics”, which he has re-introduced into Ekiti politics less than two months after assuming office.
“If the Ekiti governor is too lazy to read and know what is happening in the Edo State House of Assembly, we expect his psychedelic aides to shut their mouths rather than behave like novices.
“Fayose and his media aides should be informed that there is no crisis in Edo Assembly. Fifteen members of the 24-member Assembly are members of the All Progressives Congress (APC); nine are members of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“Of the nine PDP members, three are on suspension; one member’s seat has been declared vacant. So, effectively, the PDP has five members in the Edo Assembly.
“Even a kindergarten pupil knows that 15 is greater than five. So if five PDP members decide to sit with three suspended members and another whose seat was declared vacant in a chamber undergoing renovation, then we can at best regard that as the height of crass legislative irresponsibility.
“It is ridiculous to even contemplate that the Ekiti governor and his media aides do not know that 15 is greater than five. For sure, they seem engrossed with their stomach infrastructure mantra, such a dubious contraption which can only be contrived by a clueless and gluttonous administration.
“We are ashamed that Ekiti, hitherto known as the fountain of knowledge, has been reduced to a mindless bubble.
“We advise Fayose to restrict his “gung-ho” area boy tactics to Ekiti State and stop dropping the name of Governor Adams Oshiomhole to shore up his jaded image.
“Governance comes with decorum, respect and responsibility. If Ekiti people with all their avowed sophistication and intellectuality have elected to present him as their number one citizen, so be it; but they must understand that there is a difference between character and infamy.”
The Edo State Government has said it will sue the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for allegedly becoming a “political commission”.
It said a legal team had been assembled to challenge the authority of the EFCC to “become a political commission”.
Governor Adams Oshiomhole spoke yesterday at a town hall meeting in Benin, the state capital.
The governor said he was taken aback when the EFCC investigated the impeachment of former Deputy Speaker Festus Ebea, whereas several other impeachments had occurred across the country.
He said: “Our own EFCC is now Economic Financial and alleged Political Crimes. I am still unable to understand how EFCC assumed the responsibility to investigate the impeachment of a deputy speaker. That is how far the EFCC has degenerated.
“When armed robbers are looking for thieves, then the story will change. We are watching how things will go. We have assembled a legal team to take EFCC to court to challenge their authority to become a political commission. We will fight them on our feet and never beg them on our knees. We will show them respect but never shall we display an act of cowardice. We want to see how far they can go. The greatest weapon is to deliver on good governance.”
Oshiomhole hinted that his administration would sue Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu over alleged libellous statements credited to him after a supposed bomb attack on a building owned by the cleric.
The governor noted that he was consulting “to find out if he (Ize-Iyamu) is right to make that criminal libellous statement and get away with it”.
He said the “self-inflicted wound” and purported bombs were meant to divert attention from the criminal acts on the Edo State House of Assembly, adding that the All Progressives Congress (APC) defectors wanted to attract sympathy that they were suffering for joining the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Oshiomhole said it was sad that the orgy of violence in Edo State reared its head when Pastor Oze-Iyamu and others defected to the PDP.
He said: “The poster Pastor Ize-Iyamu carried to the airport reads: ‘Mr. President, see what we are suffering for supporting you’. All of these are designed to appeal to the PDP to grant more concessions, having portrayed themselves as people suffering because they defected.
“Edo State has always been peaceful. The APC and PDP had co-existed peacefully in Edo State without such ugly incidents as witnessed in the past few weeks. It is clear that the defectors are introduced the spectre of violence to the state since they have no new values to add.
“We have it on good authority that Pastor Ize-Iyamu had boasted to the powers that be in Abuja that he would get more than half the members of the state House of Assembly to defect to the PDP. However, since he has been unable to do that, he resorted to self-inflicted attacks to give the impression that he is a factor and force in the PDP and in Edo politics.”
A coalition of youth organisations in Edo State has endorsed Hon. Patrick Obahiagbon for the Senate in Edo South District.
Obahiagbon, who is the Chief of Staff to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, is on the platform of the All Progressive Congress (APC).
Rising from a meeting in Benin-City, the state capital, the youths described him as a man of honour and integrity. In a communique by Coordinator of the coalition, Comrade Kola Edokpaiyi, they explained that Obahiagbon is the best among the aspirants.
Urging the APC leaders to field him as the candidate, the youths said competence should not be sacrificed on the altar of ethnic sentiment.
Edokpaiyi said: “The choice of Obahiagbon was informed by his outstanding performances when he was opportuned to serve in the State and National Assembly. Sending a candidate that do not enjoy the support of the youths and masses will no doubt weaken the fighting spirit of the youths and reduce the chances of the APC at the elections.”