The story differs depending on who is telling it; but the fact remains that the on-going political battle for the soul of Edo State between former governor and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; and his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki, produced its own collateral damage that affected Oba Rilwan Akiolu of Lagos and other innocent visitors to the country home of Oshiomhole on Saturday.
\nThe affected guests attended the maiden convocation of the\u00a0 university in\u00a0 Iyamho,\u00a0 Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State. The University is situated opposite Oshiomhole’s sprawling home.
\nObaseki, Oba Akiolu, and Pro-Chancellor of Edo University, Iyamho, Prof. T.O.K.\u00a0 Audu were on their way to Oshiomhole\u2019s house\u00a0 to honour an invitation to lunch by the party chairman when\u00a0 some\u00a0thugs attacked the vehicle they were in and other vehicles.
\nThis is how Governor Obaseki saw the attack on him and his convoy as he spoke to reporters: \u201cIt is very unfortunate that we can\u2019t feel safe in the house of our national chairman. I am not sure that if I visit the Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party that they will attack me the way they did in the house of the APC National Chairman.
\n\u201cIt is unfortunate that things have degenerated to this extent. But we will continue to seek peace. We cannot afford to lose the gains of the last three years. We will continue to pursue peace.\u201d
\nOshiomhole saw it differently. He put the blame squarely at the doorsteps of Deputy Governor Philip Shuaibu. His spokesman, Simon Ebegbulem, issued a statement which reads: \u201cThe incident that occurred at the gate of the National Chairman of the APC in his Iyamho country home is\u00a0 unfortunate and the national chairman expresses his apologies to the governor, the Oba of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, and Chancellor of Edo University,\u00a0 Dr Aderemi Makanjuola, whom he holds in high esteem.
\n\u201cBut I want to state that the people who unleashed mayhem on vehicles were the thugs who invaded the university community on the orders of the deputy governor of the state, Philip Shaibu.\u201d
\n\u201cIn fact,\u00a0 the Governor of the\u00a0 Central Bank of Nigeria (Godwin Emefiele),\u00a0 who delivered a lecture at the convocation that Friday insisted that the thugs who were disturbing the public must stop making noises before he could commence his lecture. Security officials helped to ensure peace before the event started. As a matter of fact, Comrade Oshiomhole left the event through the back (backdoor) to avoid being attacked by the thugs who laid siege to the entrance gate of the university.
\n\u201cThen,\u00a0 today which was the main event, the governor, the National Chairman of the APC and other guests were already in the hall when about 11.30 am, the deputy governor stormed the university with over 200 Okada riders and thugs. Security officials accosted them at the gate and refused them entrance. The thugs started threatening the security men who insisted the deputy governor could enter the venue but they would not allow the thugs to gain access….\u201d
\n\u201cThe thugs were dispersed while the deputy governor joined other dignitaries at the venue. This created tension\u00a0 in the small community. However, after the event, Comrade Oshiomhole invited the Oba of Lagos, the Chancellor and others for lunch at his country home which is right opposite the university. Consequently, he left instructions at the gate that he was expecting these respected leaders. So, when the visitors came, the governor drove in a bus with other officials, but following the incident that occurred earlier, where thugs sponsored by the deputy governor, invaded the university, Iyamho\u00a0 youths barricaded the gate to protect the\u00a0 APC National Chairman\u00a0 against any harm.
\n\u201cUnfortunately, these youths sighted Andrew Momodu, Osaigbovo Iyoha on\u00a0 the bus which conveyed the governor to Oshiomhole\u2019s residence. They decided to stop them from entering the compound,\u00a0 because these were the same people who led the thugs that attacked Oshiomhole\u2019s residence in Benin City penultimate week.
\n\u201cWhile this confusion was on, the thugs brought by the deputy governor started destroying the vehicles belonging to Oshiomhole\u2019s kinsmen. I want to state clearly that the vehicles destroyed were not in the convoy of the governor. The thugs targeted the vehicles belonging to Oshiomhole\u2019s relations and friends and destroyed them. Thank God for the intervention of soldiers and other security officials\u00a0 who came to restore peace. This would not have happened if the thugs who invaded the community were not loyal to the deputy governor.
\n\u201cHowever, Oshiomhole expresses his sincere apologies to the governor, the revered Oba of Lagos and the Chancellor over the unfortunate incident.\u201d
\nThe Deputy Governor, Shuaibu, through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Musa Ebomhiana, washed his hands off all the accusations.
\n\u201cThe deputy governor could not have caused the unfortunate incident that happened this evening.\u00a0 The governor, his deputy, Oba of Lagos and their entourage were at the gate of the National Chairman of our great party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to pay him the usual homage since they were in his domain.
\n“Surprisingly, the large crowd that gathered at the gate brutally attacked the convoy, destroying three cars in the process. The convoy had to quickly turn and came back to the varsity campus. So, how did the Deputy Governor cause it? Could he have arranged his own attack? In fact, they were there on the invitation of the Comrade himself.\u201d
\nHowever, it is believed that the embarrassing attack on the Governor and his guests was meant as retaliation for what took place in the Benin residence of Oshiomhole, where thugs loyal to the Governor allegedly stormed and caused damage there.
\nThe Police questioned the veracity of that incident, but eye-witnesses at Saturday’s attacked allegedly spotted one Romeo said to be the cousin of the APC National Chairman.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The story differs depending on who is telling it; but the fact remains that the on-going political battle for the soul of Edo State between former governor and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole; and his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki, produced its own collateral damage that affected Oba Rilwan Akiolu […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":20499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8],"tags":[79,80],"class_list":["post-22202","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-politics","tag-obaseki","tag-oshiomhole"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22202"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22202\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22202"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22202"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}