Governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole of Edo State has been exposed. His former political godfather who installed him as governor, Chief Tom Ikimi exposed him recently… “I was one of the two persons fundamentally responsible for the creation of the Action Congress (AC), which in 2007 admitted Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as a member and eventually the party’s governorship candidate. Everything happened virtually at the very last minute, preceding the governorship election of that year. My colleagues and I fought a titanic battle to secure victory for the Action Congress and install Adams Oshiomhole governor. Our team in that struggle was a formidable political family. We are still very much together today. One of the stars of the team is Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. Comrade Oshiomhole, who blatantly betrayed the group in virtually all ramifications, proceeded not only to ravage and exploit our State, he busied himself sowing the seeds of disharmony among the hitherto peaceful peoples of homogeneous Edo State. It is bewildering that a man who proclaimed himself a crusader against so-called godfathers has turned out to be the ultimate godfather himself, unable to reconcile himself with the reality of end of tenure is seeking a third term governorship by installing a weak surrogate.”
Comrade Oshiomhole has been in politics for about eight years altogether, which covers the whole period of his governorship. I have been in full time national politics at the highest levels, non- stop, for about 28 years now. There is a vast difference between the two of us. I helped to put the comrade where he is today and it is because I would not destroy what God helped me to build that my colleagues and I disregarded the actions of the governor during his first four-year tenure and supported him fully to win a second term.
I was privileged to be the leader of the party in the state throughout the period. I convened and chaired all the leadership meetings. Comrade Oshiomhole was admitted into the Action Congress party at a ceremony in my house. He attended all leadership meetings held in my house throughout the period of his election campaign and the early years of his governorship. There was no option, as the Governors Office was not available to him at the time. He did not have a house of his own in Benin City either. When eventually he gained legal access to official quarters and settled down as governor, he exploited every maneuver to locate all meetings in Government House, including the running of the party as a department of Government House. I detested this attitude as I am a well known apostle of party supremacy and will not accept the hijack of the party by the executive.”
“Adams and some of his colleagues parading themselves today as leaders of APC never believed the merger project would work. But as soon as the project became a reality, the master betrayer approached two top leaders of the former ACN in the Southwest and pleaded with them to establish a blockade on me in the new party. For other selfish reasons those two endorsed the plot.”
“I’m sure the Comrade would recall our heated confrontation at an APC national exco meeting in Abuja, in the presence of other governors and leaders, at which I vehemently opposed proposals by him, seeking the seizure of the state party structures by governors. This rather principle position of mine may not have gone down well with some others of his colleagues. This played out down the line. When I notified the APC of my departure from the party, many colleagues of goodwill in the party pleaded with me to reconsider my decision but I could not come to terms with the betrayal.”
– Culled from The SUN