Ganduje’s Aide Reveals How APC Governors Sabotage Party in Edo
Details have emerged of how governors of the All Progressive Congress (APC) sabotaged their party in the Edo State governorship election which they lost to the opposition, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
PDP’s Godwin Obaseki won convincingly over APC’s Osagie Ize-Iyamu in the election which build-up was so tension-soaked that the Benin paramount monarch had to intervene and warn both parties not to endanger the peace of the state.
An aide to Kano State governor who was in Edo during the election revealed to Nigerian Sketch that almost all governors of the APC-led states deliberately refused to give financial assistance to the Edo electioneering process because they were unhappy with erstwhile national chairman of the party, Adams Oshiomhole who they alleged had been arrogantly difficult when they were trying to resolve the disagreement between him and Godwin Obaseki.
The governors were said to have concluded that Obaseki would not have left APC if not for Oshiomhole’s “irrational and arrogant stubbornness.”
“There was a time that the governors tried to reconcile Obaseki and Oshiomhole, and the former was asked to apologise to the later. As a governor and before other governors, Obaseki had to go down on his kneels to beg Oshiomole, and soon after the meeting, Oshiomhole went ahead scheming against the governor, thereby pushing him out of the party”, the chieftain said.
“So when it was time to contribute to the election process, no one responded positively. Almost all governors of APC states blocked Oshiomhole’s phone calls. Even candidate Ize-Iyamu who Oshiomhole anointed had a difficult time getting in touch with the governors.
“My governor, Abdullahi Umar Ganduje had no option because he was the chairman of the Edo governorship election campaign for the APC. So, he was on ground out of compulsion.
“Oshiomhole really overplayed his hands. He refused to listen to anyone, and was annoyingly unyielding. As I speak with you, there are records of APC governors who gave financial support to the PDP candidate in Edo”, he said.
Already, a number of the APC governors were at loggerhead with Oshionhole from his days as the party’s national chairman, especially because of the role he played during the party primaries towards the 2019 governorship elections in the states.
The governors were alleged to have been heavily and mercilessly tasked by Oshiomhole during the primaries, and many of them were still smarting with anger at the way he treated them in 2019.
As Ganduje’s aide reveals how APC governors sabotaged the party in Edo, spokesperson to APC chieftain in Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Tunde Rahman, confirmed in a recently published article that some chieftains of the party supported Governor Godwin Obaseki of PDP in last Saturday’s Edo State governorship election.
He however attributed the alleged sabotage to what he called politics of 2023, saying opposing forces were at play to undercut his principal’s ambition to contest for the presidency.
