Gov Oshiomhole Decries Politically Motivated Arrests

Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has decried politically motivated arrests in the state, saying it is a ploy by the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, to undermine the frontline candidates of the Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN.

Speaking at the formal opening of the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Benin Branch week in Benin City, the governor noted that in spite of the assurances by President Goodluck Jonathan to ensure a free and fair election, there are ominous signs, particularly with recent cases of assassination and politically motivated arrests, that this declaration may be in the breach.

Alluding to the recent assassination attempt on Senator Ehigie Uzamere, the ACN senatorial candidate in Edo South, in which his police orderly was killed coupled with the police asking Mr. Domingo Obende, the party’s senatorial candidate to appear in Abuja by next Monday and the arrest of an ACN henchman, Francis Inegbeniki over his purported connection with the shooting incident, Oshiomhole said it was clear that the stage is being set to deliberately stifle ACN before the polls.

by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Dimeji Bankole that the PDP will win any re-run ordered by the courts meant that the amendment of the Electoral Law was merely in consonance with a grand script of the party to rig and manipulate the voting process.

“If they are on top of the mango tree and they want to be the only ones to shake the tree, then we are in for trouble. If the courts cannot intervene to declare a winner in case of electoral dispute, then I insist that those who engage in rigging must be dealt with,” he warned.

Contending that the negative consequences of an unelected and unaccountable political leadership has taken a huge toll on the nation’s development and reduced over 70 per cent of the population to poverty level, Oshiomhole said: “If people can acquire power in spite of people, how can they care about their welfare?”

He urged the electorate not to spare election riggers.

“If we see them trying to rig, we should summarily deal with them. The election will be free and fair if we make the bold statement that election riggers will not have a field day. But if on Election Day, we hand over our destiny to God, rigging will be prevalent,” he said.

Meanwhile, Governor Oshiomhole has called on the nation’s political elite to invest massively in the future of youths by creating a conducive atmosphere for learning, noting that the genuine development of the country will be imperilled if this is not done.

Speaking at the official commissioning of the newly renovated Agbado Primary School, Benin City, which was undertaken by First City Monument Bank (FCMB) as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR), the governor, who decried the years of neglect of public schools, said: “The public schools have collapsed and many of us prefer to send our children to private schools, thereby building a society where there are separate schools for the children of the rich and poor.”

Earlier, the Managing Director of FCMB, Mr Layi Balogun said the commitment of the bank to the project was fired by its CRS philosophy of “Teach A Man To Fish” which is to “empower people especially, the vulnerable and the disadvantaged, to become self reliant”.

Balogun who was represented by the bank’s Executive Director, Mr Peter Obaseki said “the benefit of today’s commissioning exercise transcends the mere need for education and draws attention to the need for qualitative education in a conducive and enabling environment so that our youngsters can escape the prevalent poverty cycle in which 70 per cent of Nigerians are trapped, with grave implications for social order.”

—Yomi Obaditan/Benin