A former Commissioner and a leader of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State, Prince Emmanuel Odigie, has alleged that the former governor of Edo State, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, is only pushing for his candidate, Dennis Idahosa, to emerge as the APC governorship candidate so that through him, he can gain access to the state treasury to fund his senate president ambition.
Odigie made this allegation in an interview with ARISE NEWS on Wednesday, adding that it still does not give him the right to put the party in chaos and impose his choice on the people.
“All this is happening because of our leader Adams Oshiomhole. It is about his 2027 ambition to become senate president. He just wants to use this young boy to gain access into Edo State treasury to fund his ambition to be senate president. You must not set the party on fire.
“This is the party that gave Adams Oshiomhole the privilege to be governor twice and now a sitting senator. He was national chairman. He is a man who cannot be in the passenger seat. He always wants the driver’s seat, to be at the helm of affairs.
“All I think the national working committee should do is to appeal to our leader, Adams Oshiomhole to please allow peace in Edo, to allow free and fair primaries. All we need is peace to conduct a free and fair primary.
“In Edo, this game started after Tinubu won the primaries, his boys first threw a dummy, saying Oh the closest person to the president is our leader Oshiomhole, and if you want an appointment, without our leader you can’t get. How can one man be deciding for everybody? Is that young man the most credible aspirant?”
He also urged the National working committee to replace the chairman of the primary election committee, Hope Uzodimma with a different person as the new date of the primaries approach.
“I appreciate the national working committee for doing the right thing, for ensuring that the will of the people was not subverted by one man and we hope Governor Hope Uzodinma who was highly protested against from being the chairman of that committee, is not returned. We expect that the national working committee, in their wisdom, will send a different chairman.
“We saw big men crying, women beaten up, their phones stolen, all for the ambition of one man. It is not that his preferred candidate is the most qualified. He is not a Harvard trained economist that would come and transform Edo. I can assure you that Dennis Idahosa is not a desperate young man.
“It is sad and disappointing that in the party of our dear President, a leader of the party is perpetuating violence and bringing thuggery into Edo. Every four years, only one man wants to dictate what happens in Edo. It is unacceptable by the Edo people and the leadership of the APC in Edo.”
While reacting to the rumor that Oshiomhole might be acting out the biddings of the presidency in Edo state, the former commissioner said the president would never be associated with any anti-democratic process.
“I can assure you that Tinubu would never be part of any anti-democratic process, thuggery, imposition, that is not Bola Ahmed Tinubu. There is rumor everywhere that they would federal might to do whatever they want to ensure that Oshiomhole’s candidate and I told them, the president who did not rig election for himself in Lagos State, who did not do it for Oyetola, who did not interfere in the supreme court judgement, I disagree that the president has anything to do with this,” he said.
Chioma Kalu
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