Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has
accused the leadership of the Peoples
Democratic Party in the state of intellectual
laziness, saying the party’s Chairman, Mr Dan
Orbih, only offers comic relief to people of the
state.
Speaking yesterday when he received the new
leadership of the All Progressives Congress
(APC) led by Mr. Anselm Ojezua in his office,
Oshiomhole said Edo State government remains
accountable and transparent and will not be
deterred by the flimsy accusations of the
opposition party.
He said: “I have read some comments in the
newspapers which reveal the quality of
leadership of the opposition.
“For example, when we took the N25 billion
bond in 2010, I did explain and I repeated it at
several fora that we are servicing the bond. We
spend about N520 million every month to
service the bond. How such servicing has
become an issue only an illiterate will wonder
that we took a bond and we are servicing it.
Somebody who is illiterate and so uninformed
will see the issue of servicing a bond as
something that is newsworthy. That is
something that you don’t need to deny. You only
need to explain to the public that you took a
facility and that facility is not even enough to
meet our obligation in Edo South which is the
Benin City Water Storm master plan project
which is a N30 billion project. The benefits of
that project is already being felt in many parts
of the city.
“I think what will make news is if we became so
insolvent that we are not capable of servicing
the bond. It is somebody who is so illiterate,
who is so uninformed that will see the issue of
debt servicing as news.”
The Governor who also spoke on allegations by
the PDP that he spends about N40 million on
trips said maybe the PDP Chairman, Mr Dan
Orbih was speaking from the experience of
former PDP Governors who misruled the state
or that of other PDP Governors in other states.
He said: “when they go on they to say I spend
N45 million on every trip, maybe that is the
kind of thing they used to do when they were in
government or that is what they do in other
states where the PDP is in power or at the
federal level. Obviously Edo state does not have
such money.
“If there is any complaint, it is by the security
agents who complain because when I’m
travelling out of the country, I travel alone.”
While congratulating the new executives of the
AC in the state led by Mr. Anselm Ojezua,
Oshiomhole advised them on the need to ensure
that internal democracy thrives and not to
commercialise the process of choosing members
for elective positions.
He said: “let me congratulate you for your well-
deserved appointment. No matter what anybody
says, this is the best-organized election by any
political party in recent history. We did not
have to conduct the election with armed
policemen and soldiers. It was an election that
was peaceful and transparent.
Oshiomhole said “Issues of internal democracy
have become major issues in political parties
and decisions taken by political parties must not
just be correct and how they are taken and who
is involved in what decision has become an
issue. I believe as individuals and collectively
you have what it takes to meet the challenge of
democracy.”
He said: “You are coming to office on the eve of
party primaries and everything must be done
not to commercialize the process and to give
recognition to experience, to have candidates
that the electorate are happy with. Everything
must be done to remove extortion from our
politics and ensure that those who fly the flag of
our party are men and women of integrity.
“At a time when opposition in this state is so
desperate spending huge sums of money to
procure members, it’s the reason why we must
scrutinize anyone who wants to fly the flag of
this party in any future elections so that we
avoid what we might call mercenary politicians.
“Let me say no matter what anybody says, Edo
people have good memory. Our major
opposition party the PDP, the last time they had
their own congress, which they could not afford
to conduct in the open, they had two parallel
congresses. Thus they had two chairmen, two
secretaries, two treasurers and two women
leaders and indeed two complete exco.
“One was supervised by people nominated by
the national secretary and the other was
supervised under the tree. The people were
hurriedly appointed because they could not
have what it takes for democracy to strive. If the
story we read about are correct, the one that
was not supervised by the national body that
was not monitored by INEC was the one that
became the winner and is the one that is
functioning in this state today”, he said.
Responding, the Chairman of the Edo State
Chapter of the All Progressive Party, APC , Mr.
Anselm Ojezua expressed the gratitude of the
exco to members of the APC for the confidence
reposed in them in giving them the opportunity
to serve.
“I want to assure you that we will do all in our
power to deliver this confidence. We hope that
in the shortest possible time, we shall present to
you a party that is grounded on efficiency and
confidence. We want to see that our party is
more proactive to deliver the services to our
members in such a manner that we can
organize effectively to mobilize our members
and supporters.
“We are mindful of the events of the recent past
which have led to the exit of some of our
members and this throws up more challenges
before us to ensure in the course of our service,
we have to learn from the lessons of our own
elections which you have rightly expressed to be
one of the best and most transparent in Edo
State. We want to draw from the lessons of that
experience to ensure that the process we are
going to undertake in the course of the
primaries in Edo State, in terms of
transparency, in terms of fairness, in
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