THE National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has accused Edo State deputy governor, Comrade Phillip Shaibu and some top members of the party from his home local government area of Etsako West, of betrayal.
A visibly angry Oshiomhole who spoke in Benin yesterday expressed disgust over the crisis that he presently threatening to tear the party apart in Edo state.
He said that the deputy governor and the other party members who are with Governor Godwin Obaseki in the ongoing face-off chose to hit him from behind in spite of all that he has done so much to help them grow politically.
Shaibu was at the centre of a recent altercation between youths in Iyamho and suspected thugs allegedly brought to the community during the recent convocation ceremony of Edo University, Iyamho in Etsako West local government area.
Oshiomhole who spoke at a mammoth crowd of enthusiastic party supporters who paid him a solidarity visit in his house, pleaded with the party faithful to continue to embrace peace and not allow themselves to be used for the wrong reasons because of money.
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The APC national chairman urged them to continue to support the government of President Muhammadu Buhari who he insisted stands for truth and justice.
He declared: “It is about the truth, we have a president that believes in the truth, that believes in fairness that believes in justice that believes that government should fight for the poor.
“There is nothing I have done in life that I didn’t have to fight but as you can see by the special grace of God there is no fight that I was forced into that I have not prevailed because I do not go out of my way to look for trouble.
I actually do my best to make peace but if it fails, God will give us the enablement to stand on our feet and defend the truth. The only thing I will say today to anyone who is here who is an agent of my son when I talk of my son I am talking of Philip Shiabu who now thinks that his own political future requires that he attacks me and import thugs to disgrace me in my village.
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The Hausas have a saying that when people are possessed and they do things like that, just say God, take control.
Supposing I was dead after 2016 and somebody tells me that my son Philip will organise people to attack my house or to attack my village to disrupt the convocation, maybe my body will be turning in heaven and I will not believe but the fact that I am alive to see someone who did not win his own booth because his own people in his own village, in his own community of Jattu, did not want him because they apparently know him better than me but I stood by him, I stood for him, not on false stand and he became deputy governor so if all that transpired now is to use that power to humiliate me but God forbids.
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As you can see, who can fight the battle, it is only God so I leave the burden of guilt to them and I will not repay evil with evil. I will stand on the path of peace. I will stand on the path of unity. I will stand on the path of justice because I know that God in heaven will never allow the evildoer to prevail.
I am very happy that God has given me good health and that I can see some people who fought me in 2007 and God gave me victory and from victory, I made them commissioners. I gave them jobs I assisted them whenever they were in need that I am alive to see them because of a small pot of pepper soup singing signatures to say Oshiomhole should not be.”
He continued: “Some of them called me privately and said they were given contracts some about N10 million and they say if I don’t sign they won’t pay my money. I said okay may the N10m make you a millionaire, some say I have been given a job and they said if I don’t abuse you they will sack me and I asked is it not God that protects?
“I don’t want to be remembered for using my office to harass anybody. I have left government for three years now but you people are here now on your own. You are not millionaires in your pockets, you are billionaires in your minds.”
In stout defence, the Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, however, faulted Oshiomole, insisting that Shaibu has not in any way betrayed his political father in the ongoing challenges facing the ruling APC in Edo State.
In a statement on Benin, he reminded what the deputy governor is doing in the ongoing face-off is exactly what Oshiomhole taught him through the years which is to fight for the oppressed and downtrodden in society.
According to Osagie: “It is the dream of a father for his son to imbibe his principles and surpass his achievements, and that is what he has been doing. Oshiomhole taught us activism, forthrightness, and standing for what you believe in. He is still our father and we are living by the principles he taught us.
“The unfortunate thing is that for some unexplainable reasons, our father seems to be deviating from the principles which he taught us. The real fight is against those trying to take him away from us, and others trying to shake him off the very principles he has lived by almost all his life. His position in our lives is intact and the principles he taught us, we hold sacrosanct.”
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