Edo APC Crisis: IGP is Conniving With My Enemies – Oshiomhole

By Akinwale Kasali

These are trying times for the All Progressives Congress, APC, National Chairman, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole.

Trouble stares at him from every quarter. The latest is at the corner of the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu.

He alleges that Adamu  planned  to set him up in the crisis which has engulfed the APC in Edo state. Worse, he said,  the IGP is dining with his enemies, in this case, Edo state governor, Godwin Obaseki. Instrutively, Obaseki was his ally.

Oshiomhole made the allegation while explaining his absence at the defection rally of Osagie Ize-Iyamu, governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the 2016 election in Edo state, to the APC.

The defector from the opposition, Ize-Iyamu, in connivance with Oshiomhole, had planned to announce his carpet crossing to the ruling party, APC, by staging a mega rally.  But the political tension  in the state caused by the sour relationship between Oshiomhole and Obaseki, forced  the IGP to put the rally on hold. The  security situation in the state was rising by the minute, and a number of people were already injured.

The decision to put the mega rally on hold by the IGP was,

also, based on  complaints by the Edo State government, through Philip Shaibu, the Deputy governor of Edo State. Shaibu visited the Force headquarters where he told the police authorities that the rally was “a mere disguise to disrupt public peace”.

The administration of Godwin Obaseki, also, placed a ban on political rallies in the state, till further notice.

While speaking with reporters at his residence in Benin city, Oshiomhole said he gathered that the police wanted to put him in trouble, and planned to set him up.

In obedience to the IGP’s order, Oshiomhole decided to stay home. But sources said he was placed under a house arrest. He strongly denied that.

He said: “I saw that story planted by the Government House in Edo that I was placed under house arrest. That is not true I decided not to go to the venue because the police in Edo and the IG want to set me up and create a situation where they will kill people, then they will attribute it to me. I stayed away from the rally to avoid any form of bloodshed.

“The leadership quality of a man is tested under excessive provocation. If it was my old self, I will not only go there, but I will make a speech that, by now, the battle line is drawn. As National Chairman, I had to pay the price by abstaining from going there so that I deny the IG and Edo Police Command the plan to go and kill people and blame it on me.

“I am embarrassed that the IGP will write me a letter informing me, on the strength of my application, which I informed him of our intention to do a rally. We informed police not for licence so that they can earn their salary. It is not for them to grant permission.

“I thought, as National Chairman, I should be formal. I delivered the letter myself so that it can be more personal.

“He conveyed to me that he has directed the police to provide full security so that the exercise can have full security. The IG knows the political value of Pastor Ize-Iyamu joining us. What I am not able to understand is how the same IG could be alleged to send a letter to Philip Shaibu that the rally will not hold”.

The former Edo State Governor, however, said he was happy that the rally was held successfully and that the APC was poised to win future elections in the state.

“I am from here (Edo State) and I am proud. It is a shame on Edo Police Command that people in broad day light thought they can intimidate me from arriving Benin. The police supervised and superintendent over this violence, even as the IG has given me a letter. As at that time no other letter has been issued,” he said.

“For police to claim they are unable to secure the Airport road, as reporters, I ask you to explain what Edo people went through yesterday. Benin was locked down just to oblige the Deputy governor or the government of Edo State.”