All Progressives Congress Chairman Adams Oshiomhole and Governor Godwin Obaseki appear to have renewed the battle between them despite the COVID-19 pandemic rattling the country and beyond.
The current crisis, which has seen the Obaseki Government accused Oshiomhole of spitting on the graves of coronavirus victim, was sparked by a ‘primary’ that Oshiuomhole allegedly organised on Thursday.
As a result, Secretary to the State Government, in a statement on Friday Osarodion Ogie, said Oshiomhole’s action showed he had no regard for President Muhammadu Buhari and the collective efforts of the various agencies of government to protect and safeguard Nigerians in these dire times, urged security agencies to investigate the use of their men for the gathering they described as an “illegal assignment”.
Below is the statement:
“The coronavirus pandemic has not only shut the global economy and disrupted the world as we know it, it has led to the loss of over 200,000 lives globally, with Nigeria having its fair share of casualties.
“It is then most despicable of Comrade Oshiomhole to show such insensitivity by spitting on the graves of these people; endangering the lives of millions of Edo people and undermining the efforts of government at the state and national levels to halt the deadly campaign of this invisible enemy.
“Comrade Oshiomhole on Thursday, April 30, 2020, organised what some media outlets have come to term as ‘APC faction’s mock primaries’ in Benin City. The meeting was organised by a group of dissidents who make up the EPM with the active backing of Comrade Oshiomhole, who, it was reported, drew up a delegates list for the exercise.
“It must be noted that the gathering was held in a house of a member of the EPM, with the attendants numbering over subsisting directives on public gatherings as prescribed by the national and state governments.
“For Comrade Oshiomhole to organise this sort of gathering at this dark moment of our history as a nation, he has not only shown disregard for the health and safety of Edo people and Nigerians in general, but also proved that he has no regard for the hard-won reputation of our great party.
“It is most instructive of the kind of person that Oshiomhole is that at this time that federal and state governments are seeking for security operatives to enforce directives on safety and other public health precautions, he is deploying policemen and soldiers to a location to hold a political gathering. These security operatives should have rather been at borders and other strategic points serving the people and doing right by the thousands of health workers who are in the frontlines serving as shields against this unraveling enemy.”
