Edo Crisis: Obaseki Tackles Oshiomhole On Assembly Inauguration Saga

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Saturday said his predecessor, Mr Adams Oshiomhole, who is also the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, is biased in his view on the emergence of the state assembly Speaker.

Obaseki said this on Saturday in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr Crusoe Osagie.

He said Oshiomhole, who handed over to him as Edo State governor, needed to hear from all sides in the matter before taking a side on the matter.

The statement read in part, “We read with utter astonishment a statement credited to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, with respect to Governor Godwin Obaseki’s alleged role in the inauguration of the Edo State House of Assembly.

“Apart from the fact that he based his conclusion on a totally false and baseless premise, we believe that he could have shown that he didn’t have a vested interest by simply inquiring from his friend, the governor, directly, or any official of the State Working Committee of our party to what actually transpired.

“Oshiomhole’s failure to satisfy the basic tenets of natural justice which makes fair hearing from all sides of a matter mandatory, has clearly exposed his bias in this issue.

Oshiomhole, at a press conference on the political developments in Edo and Bauchi state houses of assembly, said the cases in the two states were similar.

He said, “I am ashamed to talk about it, but there is nothing to hide. We have a similar situation in Edo, where in our case we have 24/24, all of them APC but somebody wants a particular person as a Speaker, 19 out of 24 are opposed to this person.”

Meanwhile, the 15 aggrieved Edo State House of Assembly lawmakers have reported Governor Godwin Obaseki to Department of State Services and  Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Adamu, for allegedly threatening their lives.

The lawmakers,  who were allegedly barred from  the inauguration of the 7th House of Assembly last week,  accused  Obaseki  of providing police cover to thugs to attack them while having a meeting at a Benin hotel.

All 24 lawmakers in the Assembly are members of the All Progressives Congress.

The embattled lawmakers submitted their petitions to the DSS and Adamu on Thursday.

Nine of the 24 lawmakers were inaugurated after electing principal officers.

The spokesman for the aggrieved lawmakers, Washington Osifo, told our correspondent on Saturday that they were forced to file the petition because they no longer felt safe in the state.

He said, “We were having our meeting on June 18 when the Chief Security Officer to the governor led some thugs under the protection of  Government House police to attack us.

“The police that we thought came to rescue us only released us on self-recognition. It means we were actually detained. Some of us sustained injuries in the attack.”

Also in Bauchi, 11 of the 31 members of the Assembly shut out 20 others from the inauguration and elected principal officers.

The Assembly consists of 22 APC, eight Peoples Democratic Party and one New Nigeria Peoples Party.

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Funke Azeez

Funke Azeez, an indigene of Abeokuta, Ogun State. She studied Mass Communication at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State. Contact: [email protected]

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