By Adesina Soyooye
In a bid to undo the damage done to his name and image by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the recently sacked National Chairman of the All Progressives Party, APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the Governorship candidate of the party, has, without using the word, called Oshiomhole a liar.
Ize-Iyamu said that contrary to what Oshiomhole fed the public, he never poured acid on any student at the University of Benin. He, however admitted to being a member of the Pyrate Confraternity. He also admitted to having been rusticated by the University, but said he eventually went back read law, graduated, and went to the Law school.
Oshiomhole had, in 2016, when Ize-Iyamu contested for the Governorship seat under the PDP, publicly called him all sorts of unprintable names, including a school drop-out, and alleging that as a student of the University of Benin, Ize-Iyamu was a cultist, and had poured acid on a student. He also said he was rusticated from school over the incident.
But speaking on an online television interview, on Sunday, in Benin, Ize-Iyamu said he never poured acid on anybody.
He explained that he was a strong Students Union Leader, and a member of the Pyrates Confraternity.
And that, on the day of the incident, he was the one who reported the matter, and saw to it that the student who was poured acid on, got first aid treatment.
Ize-Iyamu said he had entered the University in 1980 to read Political Science, but later changed to read law. He did not graduate until 1986 because he was rusticated from the University.
His story: “When I was in the University, I was a member of the Pyrates Confraternity. At that time, we didn’t look at it as a cult arrangement, but some people were already coming in with tendencies that created problems. We had this very confrontational group, and one evening, somebody reported to us that they beat up a final year student who was also very close to us, and they mentioned the names of those involved, and we said no, this is bad.
“Don’t, also, forget that I was a student union leader, very prominent in the students’ union congress. So, myself and some others who heard about this complaint said let’s go and see the people concerned, and talk to them.
“We went there and saw the people concerned, they opened the door for us, and we were discussing the matter under a very cordial atmosphere, only for some people to come in and before we knew it, there was smoke in the whole place and somebody shouted acid, and somebody was shouting and screaming.
It was then I realised that somebody has poured acid on somebody,and I quickly ran to the security post. I brought them in, and we took the young man to get first aid treatment.”
He said the school set up an Inquiry, and that the victim identified him as the one who reported to the Security, and helped with first aid. But because nobody could say who poured the acid on the victim, they were all rusticated for belonging to a proscribed organisation.
Ize-Iyamu said the case was on for two years, and that the Senate finally met, and called them back because they were not the ones that poured the acid.
“I graduated and went to law school”
Oshiomhole is a member of the APC Council to campaign for Ize-Iyamu.
How he will cope with the serious allegations he made against him on the Campaign train, is better imagined.
