New Telegraph

Win or lose, we’ll swim or sink with Oshiomhole-Loyalists, Kinsmen

…Obaseki’ll not get 10 percent votes in Edo

Pained over the recent suspension and unceremonious exit from the exalted position of immediate past National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, his supporters and kinsmen have vowed that they will never waver in their support and loyalty to their son, political leader and benefactor despite his current fate. Oshiomhole’s supporters and kinsmen who spoke in interviews with Saturday Telegraph on their stand over his recent travails in the hands of the APC chieftains in ward 10 (Apana community in Etsako West Local Government Area in the state where he was suspended by chairman of the APC in the state, Mr. Stephen Oshawo, which later culminated in months of legal tussles and eventual sack by the Appeal Court, declared that they would rather swim or sink with him where he chooses to go than abandon him for whatever reasons.

A chieftain of the party and Oshiomhole’s strong supporter, Mr. Victor Oshioke in reaction said: “As a matter of fact, the whole thing that transpired about the suspension or non-suspension was a total farce because I think every rational or sensible human being from Edo state will know that it is impossible to suspend Oshiomhole from his ward, it was just a gang up; we all know, it is not a hidden fact that Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy Philip Shuaibu captured Mr. Oshawo who was already suspended by the exco of ward 10. I am from ward 10, am from Apana; my village is the headquarters of ward 10.

Oshiomhole’s village is one of the villages that make up ward 10. Oshawo had already been suspended and out of anger of being suspended he went to Shuaibu and Obaseki and they thought this is an opportunity, so, they took him to government house in Benin City where all the statements were coming from. They were not done in Oshiomhole’s village or Apana which is my own village; they were not done in Afowa or Ogbito, not even in Iyuora but in Government House Benin. And the executive is made up of 26 members, one member had previously left and joined the PDP and they were 25, now 17 of them came out and deposed to an affidavit that they never suspended Oshiomhole, yet,you see how it played out.”

He added: “They will see that wherever he goes is where we will go and beyond this (September 19) election there is nowhere, as long as Adams Oshiomhole is alive it is where he goes politically that we will go because today Oshawo who led this action has b e e n cursed by his own people; he cannot walk freely in his own town or anywhere because he was used by outsiders to betray our number one son.” Also, Oshiomhole’s close ally and kinsman, Chief Lucky James, who is an ex- Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs said: “I want to say that we are very sad about Oshiomhole’s suspension, sad in the sense that looking at the whole process it was something due to nothing; the so-called few members of the ward executive that originated the suspension and went to the judiciary they didn’t make the number required to suspend somebody, two, due process was never followed and there was no tangible accusation against the man that they needed to suspend him.

“How can you say, out of 27 members, 17 said no and eight of them that do not meet the majority number would say it had happened? Now, as it is a pronouncement by the court is binding, so, we are taking it in good fate that it has happened.

“We are going to support Oshiomhole (in the September 19 polls) because this (suspension) was based on nothing; there was no tangible accusation against him to be suspended. It will spur us more to support him in any of his political endeavours and wherever political party he belongs to we will follow him, and now it’s APC we will remain with him in it.

Why? For obvious reasons; he was not accused of any embezzlement, he was not accused of maladministration.” On his part, Secretary of the APC in Ward 10, Etsakp West Council Area, Mr. Emuakemeh Sule Donatus, said nobody suspended Oshiomhole, pointing that what happened was the handwork of one Mr. Stephen Oshawo who had been suspended as chairman of the ward but he worked in collaboration with his brother at the State House of Assembly Service Commission to allegedly carry out the illegal act against Oshiomhole. He said: “We are going to give him (Oshiomhole) one hundred percent support in the forthcoming governorship election in the state. We have 15 polling units in ward 10 and I want you to refer back to me after the September 19 governorship election to see if Oshiomhole will win in all the units or not. We are strongly behind him; he is our pillar and leader.”

A former House of Representatives member and a chieftain of the APC, Hon. Abdul Oroh said: “Adams Oshiomhole had already complied with the President’s plea that they (NEC, NWC and others in the party) should withdraw all cases in court. So, Oshiomhole in a statement said it was the President who invited him to come and take charge of the party and take it to the next level and that he has done. The President has been reelected and the party is in a very strong position now as we speak. Yes, there are problems in Edo state but the problems are not such that we cannot surmount.” He added: “We know those who control Edo State.

Governor Godwin Obaseki has no support anywhere in Edo, even in his Oredo Local Government Area, he will not win. He has over N750monthly security vote and other funds that he is spending; if he is popular why is he intimidating both elected and appointed political office holders trying to force them to join the PDP? A good leader does not threaten his followers to follow him; those he is threatening now and they are following him will not be there on election day because they are not sincere with him.”

Oroh who represented Owan Federal Constituency in the National Assembly also stated: “I can assure you that we are going to win every ward and local government in Edo North. Half of the strength of the present PDP in Edo North is already in APC. Those who were not with us came with Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu to join the party.

We are stronger now but there maybe a few people here and there who are political jobbers presently benefitting from the governor who may not want to publicly supporting us but they are in the minority. But I can assure you that Obaseki will not be re-elected.”

“He will not get ten percent votes in Edo North, even in Edo Central; you know every election is local. During the last poll we won all the 24 House of Assembly seats in the state. The factors that made it possible to win the seats are still on ground. Obaseki did not contribute to the election of the people even in his own Oredo state constituency,” he added.

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