• ‘Says more APC members coming “on board”
Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has blamed the crisis rocking the Edo State House of Assembly on the desperation by All Progressives Congress (APC) to stop a probe of Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s pilfering of state resources to fund his vice presidential aspiration.
PDP also accused APC of working with Oshiomhole to stop, by violent means, the mass exodus of their loyalists, however insisting that several high-profile APC chieftains were set to join its fold.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement issued in Abuja said Oshiomhole was still sore over the mass defection of his top aides, top government functionaries, legislators and influential APC leaders to PDP.
Said the PDP publicity scribe : “Having lost the confidence and support of the people due to his despotic, anti-people and undemocratic tendencies, coupled with his colossal administrative failures, Governor Oshiomhole has resorted to violence and blackmail to intimidate and subdue them in line with the agenda of his party, the APC.
Metuh noted that “This frenetic effort to subvert the will of the people is foolhardy and
compares to a fabled tale of a man attempting to eclipse the moon with
hands. The fact that Edo is home to the PDP has never been in doubt. In fact, what is happening in Edo state is clearly a case of water finding
its level.
PDP, noted Metuh, (is) “aware that Governor Oshiomhole and the APC leaders have been having sleepless nights since the discovery of his mismanagement of the state’s resources for parochial agenda and the continued defections of influential APC members to the PDP and are as such bent at contriving a quick-fix to stem the tide.
“Part of the survival strategy is the spreading of wild allegations and
instigating the crisis in Edo State House of Assembly to disorganize and compromise the legislature.
The macabre dance playing out in Edo Assembly is an expression of defeatism or rather a terminal symptom of a decadent regime, so afraid that in the circumstances of unrestrained freedom, its hackneyed popularity in Edo will collapse.”
He quizzed,, “What else would have prompted the relocation of the state legislature
to the governor’s office on the stage managed renovation of the assembly complex if not a calculated plot to intimidate and compromise the lawmakers and prevent them from carrying out their constitutional duties of checking the excesses of the state executive under Governor Oshiomhole?
“We however wish to inform the Edo state governor and the APC that their machinations will lead them to nowhere. They must understand that they have not only failed the people but have also betrayed them.
“The people of Edo state are no fools and cannot continue to stay under an administration that has no regard for them.
“Nobody wants to continue to support a fascist regime that has shown
untold penchant for oppression and brutality; a despotic system that
continues to impose multiple taxes and levies on the people to promote
parochial interests and exercises its whims with reckless abandon,” observed Metuh.
“The APC and its government in Edo state have since disconnected from the people. They have refused to be accountable and that is why the people have abandoned them for the PDP where they found a level playing ground to canvass and fully realize their aspirations and yearning as a people and individuals.
“While we restate our position that Governor Adams Oshiomhole is the
centrifuge of crisis in Edo state, we call on all well-meaning Nigerians
to note this and hold him and the APC responsible in the case of any
break down of law and order in the state.” submitted PDP.