Oshiomhole Had no Money When He Contested for Governor, We helped Him Become Governor and He betrayed Our Cause – Obaseki

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has said his predecessor in office and the National Chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, had no money when he ran for the Governorship election in 2007.

Obaseki who spoke on Wednesday when he returned his forms to seek for a second term ticket at the National secretariat of the APC in Abuja, said Oshiomole betrayed their cause after he helped him to become the Governor of the state.

“In life everybody get helped, everybody get assisted. The person you talked about, he had no money when he left labour to contest. We knew what we did to make him Governor. I sacrificed eight years of my life pro bono, I collected no Kobo to serve him in Edo.”

“Today we know what we have built because of where we started from. So when you talk of betrayal, the biggest betrayal can be when people betray a cause, when they betray an idea.”

“That is the greatest betrayal of all. It is like betraying God. When you said to God, this is what I stand for and then God gives you power then you turn around and do the exact opposite. There is no greater betrayal than that.”

“So when you talk about betrayal let us be very clear. I want to put it on record that I am grateful, he assisted me just as I assisted him. I know the sacrifices we made to make him National Chairman. So what are we talking about?” he said.

On why he met former Governor of Lagos state and self-acclaimed leader of the APC, Bola Tinubu, recently, Obaseki explained, “The reason why I went to see our National Leader is that I don’t want the party torn apart. I am a man of peace.”

“For me and my colleague governors we cannot see a party we built destroyed, we cannot see a ruling party be so weakened and whatever it will take to secure peace, to secure harmony in the party, we are prepared to, I am prepared to make.”

“That is why I joined my colleagues to go and see the leader, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu to assure him that we are all working for the same course, we are all working to build our party.”

“From 26 States, we are now 20. We don’t want to lose anymore state, there is really no reason to. We should all drop our egos and work for our party and the unity of our country.”

Obaseki warned Oshiomhole to recuse himself from the forthcoming primary election in the state and added that he’s open to any form of primary as long as it complies with the party’s constitution.

“The Constitution stipulates what mode of primaries allowed in our party and how decisions to the type of primaries you want to run should be arrived that. It’s clearly stated in our constitution and so for me, I believe that as a lawful party, we will do things according to the Constitution of our party.”

“So, direct, indirect I’m certain I will win the primaries but we have to respect our constitution and follow our constitution of.

“However, I am using this opportunity to call on Comrade Oshiomhole to recuse himself from the Edo nomination process because he is an interested party.”

“It is against natural justice for a man to be a judge in his own case. So I think the honourable thing to do is to recuse himself and lets have a free process and let’s reconcile and build our party” he said.