Obaseki’s political woes self-inflicted, says Idahosa

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Charles Idahosa, also a former ally of Governor Godwin Obaseki, on Wednesday said there is no truth in the claim by the governor that members of the Peoples Democratic Party are being intimidated.

He stated that the governor is feeling the pressure of bring alone after 90 per cent of party leaders who worked for his re-election left him, noting that his predicament is self inflicted.

The former member of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party while addressing journalists in Benin City on Wednesday said the governor was under pressure because this is the first time he would be running an election on his own.

He said: “There was nothing to the alarm being raised by the governor because the state had always won election from the opposition stand different from the government at the centre.

“All the four previous elections held in the state right from when Comrade Adams Oshiomhole became governor have been elections held when Edo State is in opposition to the government at the centre.

“We need to remind Obaseki that he won his first election in 2016 under the APC when the PDP was in power at the centre. He won his second term election in 2020 under the PDP, when the APC was the party in power at the centre. So, what is the difference this time around?”

Idahosa further stated, “The truth now is that this is the first time Obaseki will be on his own. This is the first time he will be conducting an election without all the leaders that supported him in the past in his party today and it is obvious that he will lose.

“Obaseki is only shouting of intimidation because he has no single leader in his party. Over 90 per cent of the leaders that brought him to power have left him. That is what you suffer when you are a serial betrayer.

“His political woes today is self-inflicted. Obaseki is like an apprentice tailor, who his master has taught how to hold the scissors, only to decide that he knows the job and declare himself a fashion designer.”

The former Commissioner for Information under the Lucky Igbinedion government and Special Adviser, Political, to Oshiomhole, assured that “in spite of the alarms raised by the Edo State Government and the PDP, the election would be free, fair and nobody will be intimidated”

Idahosa added that Governor Obaseki would not have had any headaches about the election if he had accorded all those who assisted him politically their due respect.

“But, here we have Obaseki who will leave his comfort zone and will be looking for trouble where there is none.

“During his reelection in 2020, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in Edo State was from Bayelsa, who was a governorship aspirant under APC. Is it today that he just realised that the REC in this election is a relation of Wike? ” Idahosa queried.

The APC stalwart appealed to the governor to allow the Police to do it’s job of fishing out those who killed Inspector Akor Anuh on July 18, 2024, adding that it was foolhardy, given past experience to ask the police to prosecute those suspected and arrested in Edo State where the government can easily enter Nolli Prosequi, “When the investigation is over those arrested will be brought back. The Police must be allowed to do it’s job.”