The National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has expressed fear over the demand for his itinerary by Edo State Government.
The Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie Esq., had, in a statement, condemned attempts to cause a resurgence of thuggery in Edo State and urged Oshiomhole, to always put the state chapter of the APC and the government on notice when visiting so that he can be accorded courtesies due him as a national figure.
But the APC National Chairman, who reacted through his Chief Press Secretary, Simon Ebegbulem, said: “We are even more scared now that the governor is making every effort to coerce the National Chairman into giving him details of his movement in Edo State.
“Who knows what he is plotting again. But every evil plot against Oshiomhole will fail. He has not hurt anyone and no man except God can hurt him.”
Ebegbulem, who advised Governor Godwin Obaseki to stop blackmailing his principal, said the governor should stop being jealous of Oshiomhole’s popularity in Edo State.
“He is a man that is at home with his people, having performed creditably well as governor of Edo State. So, each time he is around, both men and women gather round him, particularly APC members and of course, the youths.
“It is sad that the governor, in his usual style to blackmail the APC chairman, now refers the hardworking youths of Edo State as thugs, forgetting that these same wonderful youths supported him during his election as governor.
“Right from Oshiomhole’s days in the labour movement, he has always been on the side of the people, therefore cannot abandon that to please a governor who believes he has monopoly of knowledge.
The Chief Press Secretary to the APC national Chairman, Ebegbulem and the APC National Publicity secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu had, on Sunday, issued statements alleging attack on the APC national chairman at his residence in Benin city on Saturday, an allegation which the governor had dismissed.
Governor Obaseki, Tuesday, insisted that Oshiomhole was never attacked in the state as being alleged.
The governor, who spoke through his special adviser on media, communication and public affairs, Crusoe Osagie, said the former governor never informed his office, Commissioner of Police or State Director of the Department of State Service (DSS) while on a visit to the state.
Osagie, who said that there would be no acrimony if the party chairman had done the needful, insisted that the former governor of Edo State should observe protocols while visiting the State.
He said, in a statement issued in Abuja on Tuesday, that he had no knowledge of alleged attack on the residence of the APC National Chairman, stating that the report of the State Commissioner of Police, DanMallam Muhammed, should be paramount more than any other report.
Osagie, who said the allegations of attack came as a result of mindset of some person to cause problem in the state, also alleged that the APC National Chairman had threatened to make Edo State ungovernable.
He said: “Oshiomhole has intention of escalating security situation in Edo State as he has said in the past that he was going to make the state ungovernable.
“When he wants to come to the state, he does not inform the governor, the police or the DSS but the thugs. As a former governor, he ought to be informing the governor and security agencies each time he is coming into the state.
“The Commissioner of Police has declared the state peaceful but Oshiomhole and his cohorts were bent on making it ungovernable. But this I know the governor and security agencies would not allow.
“Oshiomhole as a former governor should not undermine the capacity and integrity of the Police unless otherwise he is looking for anarchy in the state.”
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