Edo governorship election 2020 race between Oshiomhole and Obaseki?

By BASHIR ADEFAKA

Once again, the real reason for the crash of one-time friendship between Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki and former Governor Adams Oshiomhole has come to discourse.

This is as a group of some All Progressives Congress (APC) individuals, believed to be acting the script of Oshiomhole – despite subjecting Obaseki to frustration – leading to his quitting the party, still play games wanting a court to disqualify him from contesting the September 19, 2020 governorship election the state even as member of other party.

The DEFENDER reports that Governor Obaseki is standing as torchbearer of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the election, making the road to the polls rough for APC’s candidate Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, whose career is now marred with corruption case in court and Oshiomhole’s campaigns done for both candidates since 2016, which people now flash back to.

It will be recalled that Oshiomhole publicly called Ize-Iyamu “a thief” and “a fake” pastor that cannot be trusted with the keys to Edo State treasury. Suddenly, table turned and Oshiomhole began to sing different tunes making him described now as a man of many “conflicting tongues”.

Oshiomhole was suspended as member of APC by his Ward 10 in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State. Standing on that protocol, an Abuja Federal Capital Territory High Court granted a prayer to suspend him as he could no longer fit to run as national chairman of a party when he was not a member or his membership of the party had been suspended.

On Oshiomhole’s appeal that he insistently left on, despite President Muhammadu Buhari’s intervention, his suspension as member and national chairman of the APC was eventually upheld and National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the party finally removed him and his National Working Committee (NWC).

Saturday night he returned to Edo State and spoke in a way that many observers now see the September governorship election in the state as a race between Obaseki and Oshiomhole as against Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu.

The observers say Oshiomhole needed the homecoming to save his candidate but wondered how he would say things he once said Ize-Iyamu was are no longer so and that competence, prudence, integrity and capacity he used to describe Obaseki are no longer so.

They however reminded the former APC chairman how not allowing Ize-Iyamu face his campaign by himself against PDP’s Obaseki did not pay Ayo Fayose in his candidate, Olusola Alaka’s contest with Kayode Fayemi, during the 2018 governorship election in Ekiti State.

“I think Oshiomhole has now said that Pastor Ize-Iyamu is a man of God and reliable pastor. He also said that he is the best for the job in his presentation to Edo State people. He should at this point allow him face Obaseki in campaigns not him to campaign on his behalf dropping the governor’s names.

“If he says Obaseki left his party for a ticket, he should tell us that ACN, which ticket delivered him as governor in 2008, was his original party. He was first notable candidate of Labour Party. Why did he decamp to or to align with ACN which later became APC APC, if not the quest for power?,” a disappointed observers said about Oshiomhole after his weekend statement in Edo.

Explaining why Adams Oshiomhole ran into crisis with Obaseki and which eventually consumed him, Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, said the sacked former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, was only disappointed because Governor Godwin Obaseki refused to be used in his quest to become a godfather in the state.

In a statement, the governor’s aide said the recent vituperation of the sacked former National Chairman is just an expression of his frustration over his failure to achieve his goal to govern Edo State for a third term using Governor Obaseki as a proxy.

According to him, “In 2016 when Oshiomhole nominated and supported Obaseki, his hidden motive was to use Governor Obaseki who he thought would be a pawn in his game to defraud Edo people and enthrone himself as the ultimate godfather of Edo politics at the expense of the will and wishes of Edo people.

“However, Obaseki’s refusal to mortgage the interest of the majority of Edo people for the satisfaction of the avarice of Oshiomhole and his handful of greedy followers is the cause of Oshiomhole’s bitterness which has led him to bury himself in pursuit of an innocent governor who is trying to do the right thing for his people.”

“If Oshiomhole had made any mistake in supporting Obaseki in 2016, it is to the extent that he thought that the Governor will submit himself as a tool to be used to hold the collective will and best interest of all Edo people hostage and for this Obaseki owes Oshiomhole no apologies because the interest of Edo people is and will always be greater than the interest of one man”, Osagie added.