By Adesina Soyoye
Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, finds it bewildering that the All Progressives Congress’ Governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, did not sue the former National Chairman of the Party, Adams Oshiomhole.
He said by keeping quiet, and allowing Oshiomhole to lead his campaign and completely take it over, Ize-Iyamu has, almost, endorsed what wete said about him in 2016. “Look at the campaign. Ize-Iyamu is not complaining. Only Oshiomhole is campaigning, as if he is the candidate. It is just to let Ize-Iyamu feel that in case you win, it is because of me”
In 2016 when Ize-Iyamu was the candidate of the PDP, Oshiomhole had made many scandalous allegations against him, allegations that would ordinarily push one into losing self-esteem.
Wike’s bewilderment is that the same Oshiomhole is campaigning for Ize-Iyamu, without publicly apologising to him. And he wonders how Oshiomhole feels, standing side by side with Ize-Iyamu, and campaigning.
Wike who was speaking on a Channel’s Television interview reeled out all the names Oshiomhole called Ize-Iyamu – a cultist who poured acid on the manhood of a fellow student and was rusticated by the University of Benin, thus reducing the student to eunuch, a fake Pastor, a school drop-out, one who should not be trusted with a Kobo, and more.
He asked: what changed, emphasing, that instead of apologising to the man, he is apologising for supporting Governor Godwin Obaseki in 2016.
He also reeled out all the good things the same Oshiomhole said about Obaseki, including wanting, in appreciation, to rename a building in Government House after Obaseki.
Wike said that by not suing, Ize-Iyamu was endorsing what Oshiomhole said. Oshiomhole said it was politics, but Wike said it went beyond that; that it was a personal attack; meaning that everything the former Chairman is saying now is also politics, and should not be believed.
He said, when somebody deliberately libels you, and wants to destroy you, the best thing is to sue.
He added” That is why I am suing ThisDay. I am suing them.
His anger with the paper, he said, stems from a headline it cast as its lead story.
Obaseki, on defection, from the APC to the PDP, after he was denied the APC Governorship ticket, had visited Wike, to consult with on the way forward. The next day, ThisDay published a lead front page story, entitled “With A Friend Like Wike, Obaseki Needs No Enemy
Wike said the headline sought to destroy his character, and integrity, and had libelled him.
