Edo APC Crisis: Group Petitions President Buhari Over Oshiomhole’s Removal

The reformed Oghomwan Mandate Group has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to call the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to order over his face-off with members of the party, including the Edo State, Governor Godwin Obaseki.
In an open letter to the President, Director, History, Statistics and Strategy Wing of the reformed Oghomwan Mandate Group, George Osagie Osaghae Esq, urged for the removal of Oshiomhole as APC National Chairman.
The group said, “since the emergence of Oshiomhole as National Chairman, Edo State has become the manifestation of the Igbo metaphor of NGIGE; the bird that climbed a shaking rope, neither the bird nor the rope will have peace. Edo, as a State and APC as a party have not had peace. This consolidated cultural harmony between the Benins and Afemai is what Adams Oshiomhole is recklessly toying with under the watchful eyes of the Otaru of Auchi and other prominent traditional rulers of Edo North extraction.”
“The terrorism that Adams Oshiomhole shamelessly wields in Edo State led to a fatality of national opprobrium and save for the grace of God and Edo ancestors, either the Oba of Lagos or Governor Godwin Obaseki would have been gruesomely murdered or brutally assaulted in Adams Oshiomhole’s private residence at Iyamho by a ring of violent mob operating under a pseudonym of Adams Oshiomhole’s militia, after his heavily armed gang led by one Romeo descended on the Governor’s convoy who were formally invited by the APC national chairman himself. God spared us of that collateral catastrophe,” the group added.
According to them, “Edo State has produced three national chairmen of ruling parties in Nigeria, apart from Adams Oshiomhole. None descended to inanities or turned into a terror who delights in imposing his ill-will on the state Governor in order to puncture the increasingly popular legacies of the Governor’s administration.
“The same former Governor Oshiomhole who blackmailed party leaders to throw Godwin Obaseki on board as Governor on account of his upbeat economic and human development capacity has turned 360 degrees to blackmailing the same Governor to surrender the State’s treasury to criminals and political renegades in the name of revenue collectors in order to service his unquenchable thirst for highlife.”
The group also urged President Buhari, who doubles as the National Leader of the APC, to “to save our soul and restore peace to Edo by sacking Oshiomhole immediately and unconditionally in order to preserve the fragile peace in Edo and save the polity from degenerating into a foreseeable collapse.”
Meanwhile, a socio-cultural group, the Benin Solidary Movement, has warned the Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), not to take the Benins for granted with his ongoing face-off with the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
The group in a statement signed by its president, Comrade Curtis Eghosa Ugbo, insisted that the signal it is getting from the recent attack on the governor was ominous, noting that if the incident was not carefully handled, “it could snowball into a small conflagration capable of consuming all the efforts that have been made to make the state a model for others.”
According to them, “The attention of the Benin Solidarity Movement (BSM) has been drawn to the recent acts of political gangsterism being exhibited by some disgruntled politicians and their hirelings in the political space of the state.
“These disgruntled politicians have gone as far as taking certain steps that are inimical to the rule of law and also capable of setting the state ablaze if not nipped in the bud.
“As the conscience of the society and also the voice of the voiceless, it is our duty to call these troublemakers to order immediately so that posterity will not count inaction against us.”
He condemned the recent attack on the person of the State Governor, Godwin Nogheghase Obaseki and some influential personalities from other parts of the country who had come to participate in the first convocation programme of the Edo University, Iyamho in Etsako West Local Government Area.
Ugbo stressed, “It should be noted that this action (attack on Obaseki) stands out as the second time in the space of three years that a prominent Benin man would be attacked in that part of the state (Etsako West) coming after the attack on another respected Benin man, Hon. Pius Odubu, the then deputy governor of the state, while on a political campaign to be governor.
“Also worrisome is the neo-godfatherism cloak that some politicians have worn even as in the days of yore their voice was loudest condemning those they accused of fostering decisions on the state.
“The same politician wanting to be a godfather in the state wanted to sell our Edo House in Lagos to himself using his cronies and we fought him to a stand-still not to sell that house our argument was that “if that house was sold before, will it be there for him to sell.”
Noting that it was a sad spectacle for an era of godfatherism to end and another creep in from the main opposition to the idea, he said, “In the previous era, Edo South (made up solely of Benins), which is the largest ethnic nationality in the state with seven local government areas backed by the largest land size, suffered the most in terms of having to abide with decisions forced on it by somebody from a minority ethnic nationality.
From all indications, the game which we all felt has come to an end has seemingly taken on a bigger and frightening dimension as a new godfather from another minority ethnic group has again started forcing orders on Edo South.”
He said BSM frowns at the action and will henceforth rise up against it, as they have now placed a searchlight on all the political gladiators and their pronouncements to filter out the effect of such on our people, noting “We are certain that God never made a mistake in placing the Benins in this location which we have been in for centuries.
“Our advice to some of our Benin brothers and sisters who are hirelings of these neo-godfathers is that they should take heed and be of good character. After all, when they had the opportunity to be our representatives in the political space for years, they did not justify the confidence reposed in them as they performed poorly. Rather, they were feathering their own nest to the chagrin of the people. We challenge them to avail us with the scorecard of their achievements while occupying political position.
“Never again will such under-performing politicians be allowed to force decisions which are anti-progress on Benin people. We have had enough of their scheming and placing our future in jeopardy as a result of their greed.”
He continued, “In due course, if these rabble-rousers refuse to turn a new leaf we will have no choice than to declare them enemies of the Benin Kingdom and as such persona non grata on Benin soil.
“On the much talked about Edo Specialist Hospital, we challenge the government to come out with detailed report of the establishment of the facility especially the alleged involvement of one Golda, said to be a side-chick of a politician in the state, in the wheeling and dealing that allegedly characterised it.”