Oshiomhole, APC scared over defection – PDP
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has claimed that Adams Oshiomhole, governor of Edo State and main opposition party, All Progressives Congress (APC) are scared after members of their party announced plans to defect to the PDP.
The national ruling party made this statement in a released signed by Olisa Metuh, PDP National Publicity Secretary, on Sunday.
PDP in the statement said Oshiomhole was embittered by the decision of his followers including his aides, top government functionaries, legislators and influential APC leaders to ally with the PDP.
It noted that the soaring popularity of the PDP in the state was also giving Oshiomhole and his party sleepless night, claiming that this could be the reason why it said the governor and the APC had resorted to masterminding crisis in a spirited move to stop the trend.
PDP 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.”
“Having lost the confidence and support of the people due to his despotic, anti-people and undemocratic tendencies, coupled with his colossal administrative failures, Governor Oshiomhole has resorted to violence and blackmail to intimidate and subdue them in line with the agenda of his party, the APC.
“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 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.
Metuh stated that: “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 at contriving a quick-fix to stem the tide.”
He noted the crisis in Edo State House of Assembly was one of the strategy of the governor. “Wild allegations and instigating the crisis in Edo State House of Assembly to disorganize and compromise the legislature.”
Adding that the “macabre dance playing out in Edo Assembly” was an expression of defeatism or rather a terminal symptom of a decadent regime, so afraid that in the circumstances of unrestrained freedom, its hackneyed popularity in Edo will collapse.
“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?
“We however wish to inform the Edo state governor and the APC that their machinations will lead them to nowhere. They must understand that they have not only failed the people but have also betrayed them.
The people of Edo state are no fools and cannot continue to stay under an administration that has no regard for them.”
In the statement PDP alleged that nobody wants to continue to support “a fascist regime that has shown untold penchant for oppression and brutality; a despotic system that continues to impose multiple taxes and levies on the people to promote parochial interests and exercises its whims with reckless abandon,” adding that, APC and its government in Edo state have since disconnected from the people.
“While we restate our position that Oshiomhole is the centrifuge of crisis in Edo state, we call on all well-meaning Nigerians to note this and hold him and the APC responsible in the case of any break down of law and order in the state,” the statement concluded.
