Oshiomhole was grilled by presidency over violent attacks in Edo

Special Adviser to Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, has said that the sacked national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, was summoned by the presidency to explain his role in the series of violent attacks on the Edo State Governor and other members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.

Osagie who spoke to journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital, said: “Our attention has been drawn to the series of barefaced lies told by the sacked national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Adams Oshiomhole, on a Channels Television news programme, on Monday, August 17, 2020.

“The former national chairman of the APC had a field day on Monday churning out lies. Contrary to Oshiomhole’s claim that he went to see President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa in Abuja to brief him on the outcomes of the party’s campaigns in Edo, the former APC national chairman was actually summoned to the Villa to explain his role in the series of violent attacks on members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the ongoing electioneering campaigns in Edo State, preparatory to the September 19 gubernatorial election.”

He added that “Some of the attacks include the one on the convoy of Governor Godwin Obaseki, when he paid a courtesy visit to the Benin Monarch; the attack on the governor’s convoy in Apana (Oshiomhole’s Ward), Etsako West Local Government Area, while the governor was going to the community to campaign to his supporters there, and of course, the alarm raised by the deputy governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu, that assassins were brought into Edo State, by Oshiomhole, from Kogi State to eliminate leaders of the PDP, including himself.”

He explained that “the security reports unnerved the presidency, and they decided to invite Oshiomhole for a meeting to shed light on his roles in the sponsored attacks.

“Oshiomhole told Nigerians on national television that the governor and his deputy took to the use of firearms to generate confusion when they didn’t see any crowd, in Opana, his own ward, whereas what actually transpired was that Oshiomhole’s sponsored thugs attacked Governor Obaseki’s convoy on their way to Opana for a campaign rally. It took the intervention of security aides attached to the Governor and his deputy, to ward off the attackers.”

Osagie noted: “Oshiomhole thinks Nigerians are pliable people who do not use their heads. Nigerians know that politicians do use gunshots to invite people to political rallies, instead it was Oshiomhole’s thugs that attacked the governor, and wanted to scare away people from the rally. For the records, Oshiomhole lied to Nigerians. Everything he said was a lie.

“The former APC national chairman also claimed that the APC has massive support in Edo State and argued that he is confident that the party will win the election because Edo is an APC state.

“As a matter of fact, Oshiomhole’s recklessness has shutdown Edo people’s interest in the APC, and they have all moved to the PDP. The Edo State of today is a PDP state. The hired crowd that the APC paraded during their district campaigns does not reflect the party’s popularity in the state.

“The most reliable way of measuring a candidate’s popularity in an election like the one we are preparing for in Edo State, is the number of supporters a candidate has at the ward level, as we have seen in the ward-ward-campaigns by Governor Obaseki of the PDP.”