The All Progressives Congress (APC) has accused Governor Godwin Obaseki of holding his aides and other government officials hostage to halt what it called an ’embarrassing’ wave of resignations which has seen commissioners and the governor’s personal chief of staff quit their positions.
The Chairman of the State Media Campaign Council of the APC, Mr John Mayaki, stated this in a statement in reaction to a claim by the PDP that it ran out of membership cards in the state following mass defections from the APC.
He described the claim of the PDP that the party ran out of membership cards following a gale of defection from the APC as ‘a laughable lie’ easily debunked by the preponderance of high-profile resignations from the government of Obaseki which, according to him, has become a war-zone where those left are openly jostling for funds and other pecuniary benefits before the ship finally sinks.
‘Kola Ologbodiyan and other PDP tax collectors who, from the convenience of their homes in Abuja, continue to pontificate on matters of Edo Governorship election through statements of fiction painting a non-existent La La Land where their membership cards purportedly ran out of print is another indication of the grand delusion and dishonesty seared into the DNA of this political party,’ Mayaki said in the statement.
‘It is a laughable falsehood that paints the complete opposite of what truly obtains in the state.
‘Aides appointed by Governor Godwin Obaseki and other government officials are daily resigning their positions in protest of the governor’s abandonment of governance, something he never took seriously, and a realization of the embarrassing defeat that awaits him on the 19th of September.
‘If one were to do a roll call of those who have resigned their position in the collapsing Obaseki-administration, from his Personal Chief of Staff, Taiwo Akerele, to the Information Commissioner, Mr.Paul Ohonbamu, it might take an entire day.
‘Is there better evidence of failure than your closest aides, months from the election, resigning their positions and immediately declaring support for the opposition? It says to the people in the most effective way that your ship is sinking and your house is in disarray.
‘Who will leave a sturdy ship for the Edo PDP that is riven with in-fighting, open jostling for funds, undemocratic impositions, and the complete overrunning of the state chapter by the national overlords, a fact evidenced by Kola Ologbodiyan’s endless fiction-writing from Abuja when there is a Publicity Secretary in the State?
‘The fact is that Obaseki’s cabinet would have been empty by now but for the threats of arrest and detention, he issued to others to stop them from resigning. Everyone saw how he harangued his former Chief of Staff, Taiwo Akerele, and ransacked his home with armed Police and DSS officials when he tendered his resignation.
‘Obaseki is holding his aides hostage to save face while forcing them, against their will, to participate in the demeaning charade of staging a defection to the PDP on the internet. The majority of them are silently crying for help.
‘The tax-collectors of the PDP can continue their wishful thinking in their Abuja abode but those in the state know that the PDP has already reached the end of the road in Edo State and the final goodbye will be said on the 19th of September at the polls”, the statement said.
