By Ebere Levi
The political imbroglio in Edo state involving governor Godwin Obaseki and his estranged political godfather and national chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, is severely shaking the party, this magazine can authoritatively reveal.
Shivering TrepidationÂ
There is a shivering trepidation among party top brass at the prospect of Edo slipping off APC’s hold in September when the governorship election will be held.
The unsettling spat between godfather and godson has, as a result, taken a frightening dimension as radical measures that will castrate and neutralise both Oshiohmole and Obaseki to save the party are being weighed by party hawks
We will Sacrifice Obaseki, OshiohmoleÂ
Insiders inform that a faction of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party opposed to Oshiohmole and some elements in the Presidency that pulled the trigger which nearly dwarfed the National Chairman a few months back have come to the conclusion that both Oshiohmole and Obaseki have to leave the stage if the APC must retain Edo.
To this end, a high voltage plot, The Source was informed, is afoot to stop Obaseki from getting a second term ticket and also, finally, remove Oshiohmole as APC National Chairman.
“With Oshiohmole as APC national chairman, no Guber Primary in Edo will ever produce Obaseki as the flag bearer of our party and, with Obaseki determined to destroy the party in Edo if he is denied the ticket, the best option is to shove the two aside.
“Certainly, we are left with no option than to sacrifice Oshiohmole and Obaseki. We will sacrifice them to keep Edo. In the next few days, legal fireworks to, finally, dethrone Oshiohmole, or render him a king without a kingdom, will commence. We won’t allow him to superintend the Edo Guber Primary of our party for he will impose his lackey, and if he succeeds in doing that, we lose Edo to the PDP”, our source said.
Results of Direct primary Has been Written Already
While Oshiohmole’s faction has chosen Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as its consensus candidate, and adopted direct primaries as the mode of selecting the party’s flag bearer for the election, the Obaseki faction is insisting on indirect primary.
With indirect Primary, all the party delegates who are the Governor’s loyalists will easily return him, and this is what Oshiohmole does not want.
Top leadership of the party in Edo alleges that Oshiohmole and his faction have already written the result of the Direct Primary, and is only waiting to for June 22, date of the guber primary to formalize it.
“They have already written the result and only waiting for Jun 22 to import thousands of party members from neighbouring states to the venue of the primary election to give the impression of a large turn out. They will then reel out fictitious figures and, thereafter, declare Ize-Iyamu winner. But we will not allow them. We will stop them in their tracks”, he told the magazine in Benin the state capital.
In an interview last Friday on Channels Television, the Deputy Governor of the State, Philip Shaibu told his interviewer: “I know Oshiomhole. We worked with him. He has already written the results of the Direct Primary”
Ize- Iyamu is Wasting his Time and Resources
Ize-Iyamu, who became the People’s Democratic Party, PDP Guber candidate in the 2016 Edo election after defecting from the APC, returned to his former party, recently, to the warm embrace of Oshiohmole, himself the immediate past governor of the state.
Ironically, during the electioneering campaign for the Edo 2016 guber election, the same Oshiohmole who was then an out- going governor, had labelled Iyamu a thief and fake Pastor.
The Magazine gathered that Oshiohmole’s faction of the party in the state lured Ize- Iyamu out of the PDP waving APC’s 2020 gubernatorial ticket at him.
It was also learnt that his departure from the PDP became a fait accompli when he discovered that the party was not considering him for its 2020 Edo guber ticket, having realized he was hobnobbing with the APC.
However, several APC stalwarts in Abuja and Benin who spoke to the magazine at the weekend were emphatic that Iyamu was wasting his time and resources chasing a ticket he will never get.
“Is it not an irony that Ize-Iyamu has accepted to be a godson to a man who tarred him with unprintable names; who impinged on his integrity by branding him a thief and a fake pastor four years ago?
“Ize Iyamu has no integrity, otherwise he wouldn’t be cockling together with Oshiohmole. However, the good thing is that he is wasting his time and resources chasing a ticket he wont get.
“If Obaseki can’t get it, Ize-Iyamu wont either
We will certainly stop Ize- Iyamu and his godfather”, one of them told the magazine.
The Repeat of Zamfara, Rivers Looms
Party leaders are warning that unless sanity and logic prevail over primordial interest in Edo, the Rivers and Zamfara scenario which saw the APC lose the two states to the PDP in 2019, through the instrumentality of the judiciary, because of faulty primary elections, will repeat itself in Edo.
According to a member of APC’s NWC, “I doubt if the belligerents in Edo, particularly Oshiohmole, have learnt any lesson from our misfortunes in Rivers and Zamfara”
The Ambode Treatment will Backfire,Lagos is not Edo
Alluding to the manner a certain party godfather in Lagos successfully engineered the ouster of former Lagos state governor, Akinnwumi Ambode, through a sham direct primary election which the ex governor lost to the current governor, the NWC member warns: “Those who the god wants to kill, it first make mad. Don’t try the abracadara in Edo, Edo is not Lagos.It will backfire and consume the APC ”
Obaseki: Defection on the Card
Multiple sources close to the Edo state governor have told this magazine that Obaseki is not prepared to put all his eggs in one baskets.
“Defection to the PDP, is one of the cards on the table”, one of the sources reveal. In fact, let me tell you, APC will die in Edo the moment Obaseki leaves. So, the party will be foolish to allow him move.
Another source concedes that the forces arrayed against his principal’s second term bid are enormous, but expressed optimism that he will triumph: “The truth is that Oshiohmole and his gang are amassing financial resources and thugs to violently seize the APC ticket from His Excellency, but I can assure you that the governor has his trump card. He will overwhelm Oshiohmole, Ize- Iyamu and their cohort.Watch out”
Though PDP is the party favoured by most of Obaseki’s loyalists as plan B in the event that the unthinkable happens, and Ize-Iyamu snatches the ticket from him, some members of the governor’s kitchen cabinet are looking towards the direction of Labour Party.
Their reason is that what the governor needs is a party he can dominate 100% and not one with disparate internal interests.
“Our concern is that there are alot of people in the PDP who have stuck with the party through thick and thin. They too want to be governor, and may sabotage anyone coming from outside to usurp the ticket”, The Source was told.
PDP: We will Give our Ticket to Anyone who can Win the Governorship Election for our Party
However, the PDP is thinking differently. Without mentioning Obaseki by name, a member of the party state Executive Committee told the magazine in Benin that what is paramount is a candidate who can deliver the Edo governorship seat to the party “even if the person joined us on the eve of the election.
“You can be 100 years old in a party as a member, but lacks the popularity and sagacity to win, even a councillorship election. So what is the need insisting on such a person as guber candidate?
“We can not close our door against anyone who wants to join us and contest for our party’s guber ticket”, he said.
Oshiohmole’s Faction: Obaseki is Afraid of Defeat
Meanwhile, Oshiohmole’s faction of the party in the state is alleging that Obaseki is afraid of defeat in a free and fair primary.
The faction denied that Oshiohmole is imposing Ize Iyamu on the party as flag bearer, and challenged the governor to an open contest.
“Nobody is imposing Iyamu on anybody. He is an aspirant just as the Governor. I dont understand why Pastor Iyamu’s aspiration is rankling Obaseki.
“He says he is popular and that the party and Edo people are behind him. We said, fine, come and test that popularity in an open contest, but he is busy running everybody down.
“It is clear that Obaseki is afraid of defeat. It is obvious he stands no chance against Pastor Iyamu”
The date of the Primary election is just around the corner, very soon, the chickens will come home to roost.
