By Chidi Levi
Shortly after Governor Godwin Obaseki, candidate of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, in the September 19, 2020, election was declared re-elected, a top notch of the All Progre ssives Congress, APC, who spoke to The source in August concerning the Edo election put a call across to the magazine again.His message was succinct: “I told you we would not allow Oshiohmole and Tinubu have their way in Edo.We have done just that”
The “we” here is the anti-Bola Tinubu/Adam Oshiohmole faction of the APC.
He had, last month, vowed that his faction of APC would do everything possible to ensure that Ize Iyamu was defeated because “his victory means Tinubu/ Oshiohmole victory.
His words back in August: “Having succeeded in stopping Oshiohmole on his track, it will be bad politics to support anything or anybody capable of giving him a lifeline, politically.
“Its a common knowledge that Ize-Iyamu is his candidate, his victory, therefore, means Oshiohmole’s victory; it will also be Tinubu’s victory.Edo in the kitty of the Tinubu/Oshiohmole alliance could alter the 2023 calculations as regards our party’s presidential ticket and we won’t allow this happen.And we will be ready to sacrifice Edo to stop it
“The internal APC forces against Oshiohmole and Tinubu are, also, by extension against the victory of Ize- Iyamu. Therefore, we won’t mind Obaseki’s victory in order to thwart Tinubu/ Oshiohmole ascendancy.
Essentially, following the internecine intra-party crisis that climaxed with easing out of Oshiohmole as APC’s National Chairman few months back, in its August 15, 2020 Edition captioned “Intrigues that May Undo Ize-Iyamu Afoot”, The Source had unearthed a grand plan by the above mentioned faction of the party to work for governor Obaseki’s re-election rather than the election of the candidate of the party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu anointed by the then National Chairman and handed the party’s Edo gubernatorial ticket in the place of Obaseki.
Obaseki would later defect to the PDP in June where he effortlessly picked the party’s ticket.
Notedly, Ize-Iyamu’s crushing defeat brings to a head, the debilitating cracks on APC’s walls. Reacting to the the party’s loss at the polls, a chieftain from Edo told The Source thus: “APC simply defeated APC. Denial of Obaseki of our party’s ticket was the height of Oshiohmole’s shameless rascality.It was a costly mistake that should have been avoided. Why would you deny a performing governor a return ticket to continue with his good works?
“I can tell you that many highly placed APC members secretly worked for Obaseki in protest of the ill-advised treatment Oshiohmole meted to him”.
Impeccable party sources told this magazine that shortly after the Oshiohmole-led APC’s National Working Committee, NWC announced the disqualification of Obaseki thus shutting him out from the APC gubernatorial primary, some governors of the party opposed to him and Tinubu’s rumoured presidential ambition reached out to the governor and urged him to move to the PDP, pledging to fund his campaign.
The APC governors, the magazine was told, not only funded his campaign, but were regularly giving him tips on how to out-wit and manoeuvre Oshiohmole.
Disinterested in the Ize-Iyamu candidacy by most of the party’s governors and top party stalwarts, it was learnt, accounted for the cancellation of the grand finale of the APC gubernatorial campaign billed for Benin on Wednesday, 16th October, 2020.
“The final campaign rally was aborted when it became clear that those that matter in the party, including governors, will boycott it”, our source confirmed.
Apart from internal APC wranglings, other factors that contributed to the defeat of Ize-Iyamu, the magazine’s findings reveal, include:
Fear of Further US Hammer:
The APC rigging machine, sources claim, was swiftly deactivated following Visa restrictions imposed on top members of the party, including some of its governors, by the United States for rigging past elections.
“Many party members with heavy war chest, before the US harmer fell, were ready to go the extra mile to install Iyamu but they developed cold feet because of fear of US.Many of them have properties and families in the US and can not risk visa ban or confiscation of their properties”, a party insider said.
Tinubu’s “Broadcast:
Few days to the election, Tinubu, a former Lagos state governor and the APC National Leader released a five minutes video asking Edo people to reject governor Obaseki who he dubbed a dictator and vote for Ize-Iyamu.
The video sparked outrage in Edo with many people in the state vowing to demonstrate to the former Lagos state governor who is the undisputed political godfather in Lagos that Edo is not Lagos where he reigns supreme and singlehandedly instals political office holders, including governors at will, unchallenged.
This resolute determination to prove a point to the APC National Leader would immediately culminate in the pro-Obaseki “Edo No Bi Lagos movement which grew like wild fire and aggressively aroused the political consciousness of the people and fired their resolve to disgrace Oshiohmole, Tinubu and punish Ize-Iyamu with their votes.
“The Tinubu video portrayed him before Edo people as an emperor frantically desirous of expanding his empire.
“The people were indeed fed up with the APC and Tinubu added salt to injury with his video thus leaving a broad spectrum of Edo people with the impression that the video was a clear and unapologetic comfirmation of his plot to annex our state and add it to his political empire”, Odion Frank, a 24 year old job seeker who confessed he had sympathy for APC as party but voted for Obaseki, told the magazine.
Aso Rock Cabal and the 2023 Permutations:
It has also been posited that Obaseki won just because the cabal in Aso Rock adamantly refused to authorize the unleashing of federal might on Edo to swing victory to Ize-Iyamu.
An insider told The Source: “Oshiohmole and his gang knew quite alright that in a free and fair contest, Ize-Iyamu stood no chance against Obaseki but they nonetheless were upbeat, believing that things will be sorted out via ballot snatching, mass thumb printing of ballot papers, intimidation of PDP agents and other forms of rigging.
“In fact, they were misled into believing that the powers that be in Aso Rock will deploy federal might or use INEC to rig the election for their candidate but they miscalculated.It was mid way into the election that they realised they had been fantasizing.
“A statement attributed to President Muhammadu Buhari two days to the election instructing security agencies and INEC to play by the rules was enough to send an unsettling message to Oshiohmole, but he was so blinded by the anticipation of federal might.
“The absence of federal might in the Edo election, of course has the imprimatur of 2023 calculations as it concerns the APC presidential ticket.
“The Aso Rock cabal opposed to Tinubu simply sent him a warming signal via the Edo election”
A presidential source claims that Aso Rock cabal, aware that Obaseki was sure-footed for victory, gave security forces stern order not to do anything to aid the victory of the APC candidate.
His words: “Soldiers were posted at the fringes of Edo, and were issued orders not to allow any rigging.
“The soldiers effectively ensured that political thugs from Kogi that were procured to aid in rigging the election never made it to Edo”
