Oshiomhole, PDP In War Of Words Over Edo Assembly Saga

The national leadership of Peoples Democratic Party has said the All Progressives Congress and the Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, are now jittery over the plan by members of the ruling party in the state to join the opposition party (PDP).

PDP noted that its soaring popularity in the South-South state was giving the governor and his party sleepless nights.

The PDP said that this could be the reason why Gov. Oshiomhole and the APC had allegedly resorted to orchestrating a crisis in the state in a desperate attempt to halt the trend.
The party accused Oshiomhole of “stirring up the political crisis in Edo State to prevent an official investigation into findings that he has been squandering the state’s resources, including huge levies and taxes to finance his campaign for Vice-Presidency, instead of settling down to develop the state”.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, said in a statement on Sunday that Oshiomhole was also embittered by the acceptance of his followers, including his aides, top government functionaries, legislators and influential APC leaders into the PDP train.
Metuh also said the governor was roundly rejected on account of his undemocratic tendencies.
But Oshiomhole, in a statement by his Special Adviser Media and Public Affairs, Kassim Afegbua, dismissed the PDP spokesman’s allegations.
He said, “The crisis in Edo Assembly is a product of the PDP’s desperation for power in its attempt to capture anything in sight, like a bunch of famished baboons.
“It is the same theatre of desperation that is pervading the entire political landscape as a consequence of the PDP’S show of raw power. We find it laughable that Olisah Metuh, who is reputed to be a propagandist and who had earlier lied against the comrade governor has come up again to embark on another tale of the absurd”.
According to Afegbua, Oshiomhole’s record of performance in Edo State has since become a reference point in the history of performance and good governance in Nigeria.
He stated, “His (the governor) tremendous achievements across the state could only have been possible through prudent and transparent management of resources, especially in a state that was run aground by the PDP for 10 solid but sordid years. Reminding Edo people of those forgone years of the locust is to insult the collective sensibilities of the people”.
The media aide also denied the allegation that Oshiomhole was eyeing the vice-presidential slot of the APC.
“In fact, we would have loved a situation where he would run for the Presidency of the country to take us away from this regime of tactlessness that has almost earned Nigeria a failed state status”, he stated
He said that the governor had not indicated interest in any elective office for now.
The PDP spokesman, however, insisted that Oshiomhole, having lost the confidence of the people due to his despotism, had resorted to violence and blackmail.
He stated, “This frenetic effort to subvert the will of the people is foolhardy and compares to a fabled tale of a man attempting to eclipse the moon with the hands.
“The fact that Edo is home to the PDP has never been in doubt. In fact, what is happening in Edo State is clearly a case of water finding its level.
“We are aware that Governor Oshiomhole and the APC leaders have been having sleepless nights since the discovery of his mismanagement of the state’s resources for parochial agenda and the continued defections of influential APC members to the PDP and are as such bent on contriving a quick-fix to stem the tide”.
Metuh alleged that part of the survival strategies of the governor and his party was the spreading of what he called “wild allegations and instigating the crisis in Edo State House of Assembly to disorganise and compromise the legislature.”
He added that the “macabre dance playing out in Edo Assembly” was an expression of defeatism or rather a terminal symptom of a decadent regime.
He said, “What else would have prompted the relocation of the state legislature to the governor’s office on the stage-managed renovation of the Assembly Complex, if not a calculated plot to intimidate and compromise the lawmakers and prevent them from carrying out their constitutional duties of checking the excesses of the state executive under Governor Oshiomhole?”