Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) has lambasted Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Simon Ebegbulem, he said;

“First of all, Okiye is not the Speaker, he is a member-elect. I watched the governor say those things but the truth of the matter is that he knows better than that.”

“The question I will put to you is: is it within the discretion of a state governor to decide who becomes the speaker?”

“The only option for him is to lobby and if he lobbies and at the end, he is unable to get everybody to toe his line, he has to concede as these are not his commissioners or special assistants for which he has absolute monopoly to appoint.”

“But even at that, if they are commissioners, they must be screened by the House of Assembly, that is the law. So if he chooses to put it in the manner that he has, unfortunately, put it, giving the impression that as the governor he can do everything, is there anything in the constitution that you know that empowers a governor to decide who becomes a speaker?”

“But, like every other person in a democracy, you get what you are able to negotiate, the operative word is negotiation, persuasion, that is what we did in Abuja.”

“Despite all the efforts we invested at the federal level, incidentally as the chairman, I was active in that, we conceded in the end when Senator Ndume said he would not go the way the party wanted. We could not deny him that right to contest and he went and contested and he got 24 votes.”

“So, that is the way to go, it was not within the powers of the President and Commander-in-Chief to use state instrument to prevent Ndume from contesting because it is his right so to do.”

“All the president could do, which he did, was to deploy his influence through the party and other channels to persuade people to ensure that this time around APC has a National Assembly leadership that we believe can work in harmony with the President.”