From Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Edo State Caretaker Committee Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Col. David Imuse (retd), has called for the immediate resignation of Governor Godwin Obaseki, over alleged lack of ideas to govern the state.
Imuse, in a statement in Benin, yesterday, listed governor Obaseki’s failure to uphold his oath of office to protect life and property of Edo citizens, his penchant for disobeying court orders and his decision to plunge the state into more indebtedness with his recent clandestine borrowing of N25 billion from the capital market as the reasons for his call, just as he alleged that the governor’s personal interest is clashing with his official interest.
“No one is safe in Edo. The state is under siege. We have a governor who has lost focus. Fear and insecurity have become the order of the day, yet the governor takes N700 million monthly as security vote. And, so far, he has not been able to deploy this huge amount to mobilise the security agencies in the state to fight criminality,” he said.
The APC Chairman accused the governor of not having an iota of respect for the judicial and legislative arms of government or the rule of law, even though he regularly runs to the courts on the most frivolous of excuses.
Reacting, the Edo State Chapter of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has berated the APC in the state for making “spurious claims”.
In a statement, State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chris Osa Nehikhare, said the APC has resorted to a wide goose chase to oust the governor even as they continue to run from pillar to post to undo the will of Edo people.
He said: “The APC is clearly still reeling from the pains inflicted on them in their disgraceful outing in the last governorship election in Edo State. They are looking for all other avenues to overturn the will of Edo people, who rejected them outrightly at the polls and embraced the governor and his policies by handing him a landslide victory and a second term mandate.”