By Ebere Levi
Adams Oshiohmole, the immediate past governor of Edo state, and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC is turning a king without a kingdom at the home front as the fight with his estranged godson,Governor Godwin Obaseki, takes a bewildering dimension.
The godson seem to have decided to go all out to undo godfather. He is not likely to look back.
Impeccable party sources inform that Oshiohmole’s suspension, Tuesday, from the party by a faction loyal to governor Obaseki is the precursor of more lethal darts from both sides in the fight for APC’s soul in the state.
The APC faction, made up of majority of state party Executives and all the local government chapter Chairmen of the party said they were suspending Oshiohmole for his role in Edo APC crisis.
Their words :”Consequent on the development, the State Executive Committee has adopted the vote of no confidence passed on him and the subsisting suspension order from the organs of the party in the state… Comrade Adams Oshiomhole is the one behind the crisis in Edo APC. We have passed a vote of no confidence on him and he stands suspended from the party”
The suspension harmer also fell on the state Secretary of APC and Oshiohmole’s loyalist, Ikuenobe Anthony.
It was gathered that governor Obaseki’s faction got wind of plans by the ex- governor’s faction to strike first, hence the decision to preempt the move by drawing the first blood.
An insider’s narration: “Oshiohmole’s loyalists in the Edo chapter of the APC led by Ikuenobe Anthony, had already concluded plans to announce the suspension of governor Obaseki, state chairman of party, Anslem Ojezua and many other party Executives.
“Few weeks later, a kangaroo investigative panel will be set up to look into the matter.And it will return a guilty verdict, followed by expulsion.
“That done, Oshiohmole in his capacity as the National Chairman, will then influence the ratification of the expulsion after which he would constitute a care taker committee to run the affairs of the part in Edo”
Though beaten to its own scheming, The Source has, however, been told that the Oshiohmole faction will still go ahead to announce a counter suspension of the governor and his loyalists.
However, a member a Obaseki’s camp dismissed the likelihood of such action.”From where will those you just mentioned draw the authority to pronounce any one suspended? They are themselves under suspension and, therefore, technically not members of the APC presently. So, any action or pronouncement from them will be as impotent as cold ash”, he said
APC governorship ticket for the state’s 2020 election is at the heart of the whole suspension drama.
The obvious implication of a split in the Edo APC, according to some party members on both sides of the divide, is that both factions will claim the same ticket and present factional candidates.
The Oshiohmole- Obaseki feud, The Source has gathered, is set to unravel big surprises and reinforce the maxim that there is no permanent enemy in politics but permanent interest.
The Magazine learnt that governor Obaseki, aware that Oshiohmole’s candidate will eventually be accepted by the National leadership of the APC may, after wearing it(APC) down, ditch it for the People’s Democratic party, PDP, where the party’s gubernatorial ticket is said to be waiting for him.
The governor’s expected defection to its fold is, however, causing ripples in the Edo PDP.
Some party chieftains opposed to Obaseki’s entry into the PDP insist it’s morally wrong for the governor to reap where he did not sow.
To demonstrate their opposition to Obaseki, the aggrieved members recently announced the suspension of some PDP heavyweights, including AIT founder, Raymond Dokpesi, Senator Victor Oyofo, Chief Victor Ikimi among others, who they accused of hobnobbing with the governor with views to hoisting him on the party as its flagbearer.
Conversely, Oshiohmole has a joker for the Edo 2020. He is Pastor Ize- Iyamu, PDP’s gubernatorial candidate in the 2016 gubernatorial election in the state.
Pastor Osagie Ize Iyamu was the APC National Chairman’s political soulmate. He was largely the unsung hero behind Oshiohmole’s governorship victories in 2007 and 2011.
The duo were later to turn foes in the twilight of Oshiohmole’s governorship, climaxing in Ize-Iyamu’s defection to the PDP on which platform he battled Obaseki in 2016.
However, Ize-Iyamu was said to have been told point blank by Edo PDP elders that the party’s governorship ticket for next year’s election was beyond his reach.
After pondering options avilable to him, Ize-Iyamu, reportedly, opted for a reconciliation with Oshiohmole with eyes set on the APC ticket in view of the possibility of Obaseki not getting it.
Ize Iyamu and Oshiohmole have now fully reunited, the magazine was told.
“In an unsettling role swap, the The Redeemed Church of God Pastor might be facing Obaseki as an APC candidate while the governor might be doing the same as a PDP candidate. Ize Iyamu and his friend, Oshiohmole, have made up. And he wants him to replace Obaseki as the new godson”, a party source said in Benin.
The former PDP governorship candidate has since announced he will be returning to his former party, the APC, a move he describes as “home coming”
Observers say Edo’s political firmament is in a state of flux as more unsettling, but high voltage drama in the arena are in the offing, and will eventually decide the tenor of next year’s governorship election in the state.
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