The rift between Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and Adams Oshiomhole, the National chairman of APC has continued to widen as Obaseki on Saturday rejected his indictment by the former labour leader, for the crisis in the State House of Assembly.
Obaseki, who was handpicked by Oshiomhole as governor of the state, accused his former boss of showing bias over his accusation that he (Obaseki) played a role in the emergence of the leadership of the State Assembly.
It will be recalled that Oshimhole had on Friday while receieving Bauchi legislators who were in Abuja to brief him on how the PDP minority members and Governor Bala Muhammad met secretly and picked the Speaker of the House, described the circumstances which produced Mr. Frank Okiye as the State Speaker, Edo house of assembly as a shame.
Oshiomhole had said, “I am ashamed to talk about it but there is nothing to hide,” and wondered why ‘somebody’ wanted minority members of the House to pick the Speaker, while leaving out the majority. “In our own case we have 24/24 all of them APC but somebody wants a particular person as a Speaker, 19 out of 24 are opposed to this person.”
But the governor, in a statement through his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, said Oshiomhole “needs to hear from all parties in a matter before taking sides.”
The statement read, “We read with utter astonishment a statement credited to the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, with respect to Governor Godwin Obaseki’s alleged role in the inauguration of the Edo State House of Assembly.
“Apart from the fact that he based his conclusion on a totally false and baseless premise, we believe that he could have shown that he does not have a vested interest by simply inquiring from his friend, the governor directly, or any official of the State Working Committee of our party as to what actually transpired.”
According to the statement, Oshiomhole’s “failure to satisfy the basic tenets of natural justice, which makes fair hearing from all sides of a matter mandatory, has clearly exposed his bias in this issue.”
“For the avoidance of doubt, all the decisions relating to the leadership of the Edo State House of Assembly recently elected by the House were taken by the State Working Committee and leaders of the party from across the state.”
“In deference to the rule of party supremacy, which the National Chairman so eloquently professes, the governor and all party members are obliged to respect the party’s decision, as we expect the National Chairman to also do,” the statement concluded.
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