Obaseki: Wike Berates Governors ‘Beggars’ Forum, Oshiomhole, Says APC Wants to Perpetrate Impunity in Edo

Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has lampooned the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) for being weak and unable to defend interests of its members.

Speaking during a media parley in Port Harcourt on Monday, Wike, who made reference to the recent disqualification of Edo state Governor, Godwin Obaseki, by the All Progressives Congress (APC), screening committee, said the forum used to be powerful until the ruling APC took over in 2015 and destroyed it.

He said, “Before 2015, the Governors Forum used to be very powerful as symbols of their respective states but APC killed it because they were protecting the interest of the ruling party.

“During one of the rerun elections in this state, my security aides were withdrawn thus exposing me to danger, the Forum did not say anything because the chairman was a member of APC.

“I told them then that what they were doing was wrong. Now, they have become a Beggars Forum even when there are constitutional infractions.

“You can see that APC governors say that they are progressive. You can see how progressive they are when they keep quiet when a fellow sitting governor is disqualified from contesting elections.

“Practice what you preach. The APC governors, up till now, cannot come out to say, we can’t take this. It is not that you disqualified an aspirant, he is a sitting governor. His integrity has come to question. Tell me any party in this world that will disqualify a sitting governor.

“There is this impunity that APC has, like the way they unleashed terror on Rivers people in 2019, they will also unleash that terror on Edo people in September using security agencies.

“If that impunity is not there, there is no way any right-thinking person will ever contemplate or implement the disqualification of a sitting governor. If not, what they actually believe that they are in control of government.

“They can say, we have the army; we have the police; we have INEC; so, we can disqualify him and then unleash terror using the soldiers, police, arrest every PDP person and then ask INEC to announce the result and nothing will happen.

“They tried it in Rivers State, but God gave us the will to say no. I hope Edo people will also say no to their impunity.

“Adams Oshiomhole campaigned for Governor Obaseki four years ago. The same man has turned around to say that Obaseki has a defective certificate.

“Has Oshiomhole apologised to Nigerians that he supported someone with a defective certificate? Who is saying that a sitting governor has a defective certificate? Is it a man that does not have a certificate?

“Oshiomhole should be told to practice what he preaches. APC wants to perpetrate impunity in Edo State the way they unleashed terror in Rivers State in 2019.”