Nigeria’s ruling party claims the opposition governor begged to join its fold.
The spokesperson of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Olisa
Metuh, has claimed that the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on
several occasions begged the leadership of the party to let him decamp
to the PDP.
Mr. Metuh said the governor was consistently turned down by his party.
Mr. Metuh, who spoke via a release Wednesday, “urged the Edo State
Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to be bold enough to tell Nigerians
how many times he begged to join the PDP but was turned down”.
” The same PDP which Adams went on all fours, begging to join on
several occasions has suddenly become the ” party of rogues” because of
his desperation to justify the massive rigging and democratic aberration
that was local government elections in Edo state.
” In 2007, Adams (Oshiomhole) begged to be given an opportunity under
the Umbrella but we considered his governorship aspiration an assault
on the existing zoning formula in the state and quietly turned him down.
Again in 2012, Adams once more came cap in hand and our great Party
again rejected him,” Mr. Metuh said.
Speaking further, Mr. Metuh said, “Is Adams just realizing how bad our party is and was all the while begging for membership,”.
ACN leaders are the real rogues
The statement also claimed that it is Mr. Oshiomhole’s Action
Congress of Nigeria, ACN, that is the real brood of rogues as their
actions in the conduct of local government elections in Lagos, Ogun and
now Edo show.
“First is that Oshiomhole is governor primarily because of the
unflinching commitment of the PDP to the rule of law and credible
elections. No amount of falsehood by the ACN can obliterate this.
Governor Oshiomhole therefore carries a huge moral burden when as the
largest beneficiary of these democratic values guaranteed by the PDP led
Federal Government, he went ahead without scruples to deny his people
the opportunity to elect the leaders of their choice.
“And when Oshiomhole referred to the PDP as corrupt,” the statement
continued, “it is very needful to remind him that corruption is home to
the states under the ACN.”
” Without guessing the disquieting cases of corruption in Edo State,
we wish to ask Governor Oshiomhole to explain how less than a 7
kilometre Benin Airport road fraudulently awarded at six billion naira
is yet to be completed after four years and how six hundred million
naira was used to change the roof and repaint the walls of Idia College
in Benin.”
The statement further said it was nothing but corruption that could
cause the buildings at the central hospital in Benin to collapse under
construction after the project was awarded at the whooping sum of N2
billion
The PDP also challenged the Edo Governor to unmask the face of the
printer behind the sub-standard ballot papers used for the local
government polls for which hundreds of millions of tax payers’ money was
spent.
It’s a lie- Oshiomhole
When contacted, the spokesperson to Mr. Oshiomhole, Peter Ohiare, denied that the governor ever tried to join the PDP.
“It is just a big concocted lie”, he said. “Even if Governor
Oshiomhole had contested as an independent candidate, not under the
platform of any party, he would have won, so he doesn’t need to join the
PDP”.
On the seven Kilometer Benin Airport Road project, Mr. Ohiare said
the contractor that was initially awarded the contract stalled, which
forced the governor to revoke the contract and it has since been awarded
to another contractor who is working fast to complete the project.
He also said ” the project is beyond what people see as it has a lot
of underground components which took a lot of time to undertake”.
He also said the PDP was also wrong with regards to the collapsed building at the Benin Central Hospital.
“It is not the whole building that collapsed but a small part which
has not affected the project at all, but has already been taken care
of,” he said.
He however, said he cannot confirm if the hospital project was
awarded at N2 billion as alleged, saying “I don’t have a figure for the
project.”
Source: Premium Times
