Obaseki to unveil next move after meeting President Buhari, as mass defections loom in Edo APC

*Oshiomole, others’ plan for APC

By Kemi Kasumu

“Let them go and form their party. Let them go and destroy APC.  The powers that are now behind Buhari, I mean master strategists who now work behind the scene with Buhari on behalf of patriotic Nigerians, who want a better country and the President himself can never hand over this country back to the wrong people. Mark my words,” he said.

There is currently anxiety within the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State as the party gives its nod to Governor Godwin Obaseki to seek his re-election through another party.

If this nod is accepted by the governor, it means what will remain of the party in the state will be mere shadow of itself because of the mass exodus that looms in the place.

But in a tweet on Sunday, appreciating his supporters and other Nigerians, the governor said he would make his next move known after due consultations.

Obaseki, who was disqualified from governorship primaries in a shoddy circumtance by APC screening committee believed to be acting on the instructions of national chairman Adams Oshiomhole, also said his announcement of what his next line of action would be comes also after he will have met President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja.

“I appreciate the sustained show of solidarity, support and goodwill from Edo people and Nigerians in the face of injustice by the All Progressive Congress screening committee. I will be making my next move known after I complete consultations with my supporters and meet with President Muhammadu Buhari,” Governor Godwin Obaseki said.

Report reaching The DEFENDER says the governor met with two fellow South South governors on Sunday who are Nyesom Wike of Rivers in Port Harcourt and Udom Emmanuel of Akwa Ibom in Uyo.

Meeting with Wike and Emmanuel were said not to be unconnected with his consultations as push for him to dump APC tickets.

This online newspaper reports that Obaseki getting the backing and collaboration of Peoples Democratic Party governors of the region will be of no issue being that all along, even as members of opposition, those South South governors have always been with President Muhammadu Buhari especially the governor of Cross Rivers Ben Ayade.

If he eventually accepts PDP offer and picks its ticket, Obaseki’s return to Benin Government House will be the easiest walkover for ant sitting governor as recently advised in a report by this media outfit.

Again, members of the Obaseki camp in Edo APC held their scheduled meeting Sunday and implored the governor to move to any other platform to seek his second term ambition in the September governorship poll.

The resolve of the faction came after a marathon meeting between the governor and the APC leaders in an apparent move to chart a new political direction following his disqualification from participating in the party’s primaries last Friday by the APC screening committee.

Immediately after his screening in Abuja, Obaseki had expressed fears that he would not get justice from the process as long as the party’s national chairman and his estranged political godfather, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, remained an interested party in the exercise.

Following his disqualification on Friday, the governor subsequently declared that he won’t appeal his disqualification by the screening committee, setting the stage for his plans to dump the party.

According to Leadership on Sunday, it was gathered that Obaseki met with political leaders and strategists from the three senatorial districts in the state who assured him of their support for his return bid.

A source at the meeting reportedly said that the governor used the opportunity to inform his supporters of plans to seek the PDP Governorship ticket which received ovation and applause.

The source who did not want his name in print said, “We gave Obaseki, in clear terms, the mandate to seek the ticket of any political party to contest the governorship election. We told him that any platform he wants to contest he will win the governorship election.

“The only issues prior to the meeting had to do with him running his deputy governor but thank God that was also resolved. Phillip Shaibu is running with governor”.

After the caucus meeting, the governor it was learnt, made plans to travel to Abuja to continue talks with the leadership of the PDP.

However, two of the three PDP aspirants, Kenneth Imasuagbon and Ogbeide Ihama, are said to be resisting possible moves by the party leadership to offer its platform to the embattled governor without a proper primaries.

It was learnt that the two aspirants are insistent that the party leadership must allow all aspirants test their popularity at the primaries.

Oshiomole, others’ plan for APC

Feelers filtering in from the field in Abuja Sunday revealed to us that Obaseki’s disqualification was not the main objective of national chairman of APC, Adams Oshiomole, but to assist the interest he represents within the party to cause enough crisis to justify their eventual pullout to join former Vice President Atiku Abubakar in forming a new party ahead of 2023.

A source in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) confined in The DEFENDER that Oshiomole, a former union leader, could afford to commit all that observers described as his “lies and arrogance” against everybody including the President of the country because he was not after victory for the APC as doing that becomes a living system for him lately.

Little wonder three eminent citizens in the country spoke on Saturday separately agreeing that the former Edo State governor looks more out to bury the party at its prime. They were former Minister of Information, Prince Tony Momoh, former Governor of Edo State, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun and former Minister of Transportation, Chief Ebenezer Babatope.

In the words of the Abuja source: “I can assure you that Oshiomole’s loyalty is not to APC, not even that he believes in the government he campaigned for jumping up with broom as if he was serious. No. He represents an interest within the party and the plan mainly is to do enough damage to justify their pullout to join Atiku in forming a new party as the 2023 game, which they prematurely plunged themselves to leaving President Buhari alone to governance, thickens.”

Asked why when he has a National Working Committee that is completely loyal to him, the source said, “Come out of it! When the time comes, you will know that the person to cast the first stone is who they all await. The APC governors, despite that they are divided into two in their views about Oshiomole, have a group of them stronger enough to have sent him away but intervention of President Buhari.

“Go and write it down, by the time this interest Oshiomole represents will be set to pullout from APC to join Atiku, you will find it difficult to justify your hate for Saraki and Dogara because they will pullout emblock with the leadership of the current National Assembly. Go and write it down,” he said adding that they believe that they have no chance to carry out their own game in the APC they formed and used Buhari’s integrity to strengthen.

He however asked Nigerians to blame Oshiomole and the interests that propel his current actions, if PDP is vindicated that APC could never last for as long as they were in government.

On whether the good work started by President Buhari will thus not be eroded, he said: “Let them go and form their party. Let them go and destroy APC.  The powers that are now behind Buhari, I mean master strategists who now work behind the scene with Buhari on behalf of patriotic Nigerians, who want a better country and the President himself can never hand over this country back to the wrong people. Mark my words,” he said.