Tony Osauzo, Benin
Ahead of next Saturday governorship election, the Labour Party (LP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Edo State, engaged in hot exchange of words, following Labour Party’s call on the electorate not to consider APC and its governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, as options of value for the poll.
The Labour Party also urged the ‘Federal Government under the leadership of President Muhammadu Buhari, the Independent National Electoral Commission (NEC), and all agencies responsible for the conduct of elections in Nigeria to be on the side of the people of Edo State by ensuring the conduct of a peaceful, free, fair election.’
The governorship candidate of the party, Mr Isaiah Osifo, made the call while addressing journalists in Benin, saying that the call had become necessary because ‘the character and the antecedent of the candidate are the social tools for measuring the expectation of any aspiring government.’
But in a swift reaction, the APC accused the Labour Party of receiving ‘heavy bribes’ from the PDP to divert attention away from the party’s failings and the incompetence of its candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki.
The Chairman of the Edo APC Media Campaign Council, Mr John Mayaki, in a statement, the party knew of the collaboration going on between the PDP, Allied People’s Movement (APM), National Rescue Movement (NRM), Action Democratic Party (ADP) and Labour Party due to the bribes Mr Obaseki had paid them.
‘Today, the Labour Party proved my reports right when they released a statement touching on the image of our candidate, the esteemed Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu. We had earlier warned that the governor has plans to rig the election by paying heavy sums of money to submit a doctored list of party agents belonging to these parties.
‘Now, the Labour Party came out at a press conference by one fellow of unclear morals, Isaiah Osifo, stating that Pastor Ize-Iyamu and APC are not options for next week Saturday’s election. In a base manner, they made several baseless allegations against our candidate and somehow forgot to tie it to the fact that some PDP members such as its former state chairman, Mr Dan Orbih, and its current state chairman, Mr Tony Aziegbmi were also suspected for the same issue.
‘Let it be known that PDP has tried the same tactic, failed, and given up. They, therefore, chose to use the rather unknown Labour Party to make these claims. Labour party is so weak that the average person in Edo does not know who their candidate is. They have not bothered to campaign, but are happy to collect peanuts from Mr Obaseki to fulfil his sinister dream, which will not work,’ the APC said.
Aside from urging Edo to reject and avoid the APC and its candidate, for alleged lack of moral ability and credibility questions to participate in the election, Osifo issued a three- day ultimatum to Council of Legal Education (CLE) to come out clean on the propriety or otherwise behind the admission of Osagie Ize-Iyamu into the Nigeria Law School and a subsequent call to bar.
‘If within three days the Council of Legal Education fails, neglects or refuses to offer the explanation, Labour Party will activate the process of getting the information using the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.
‘We are aware of an action filed by a lawyer asking the court to disqualify the APC governorship candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu on account of his failure to inform the management of the Nigeria Law School that he was rusticated for two years for his alleged engagement is secret cult activities.
‘There is equally an ongoing criminal prosecution against Osagie Ize-Iyamu over money laundering. It is sad to note that a person facing interrogation from a legal action filed by a lawyer over secret cult-related activities while he was a university student in addition to his ongoing criminal trial on financial matters is the same person seeking to occupy the exalted office of governor of Edo State where is the good politics in the decision of APC to sponsor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as its Edo State governorship candidate? Where is the morality in the ambition of Osagie Ize-Iyamu?,’ the Labour Party’s candidate asked.
But the APC in its statement said: ‘This is a complete diversion from the campaign to rescue Edo State from the excessively desperate and autocratic Godwin Obaseki and his cohorts. We’ve undertaken to snatch Edo State from the jaws of political vipers, leeches and tax-collectors, but Isaiah Osifo and some other turncoats have decided to lend their voices to the desperado where men of character and nobility unanimously vowed to rescue the state from undemocratic elements.
‘This is clearly what the school of psychology teaches as the Stockholm Syndrome where a victim of an unjust act or crime begins to develop trust and affection for his aggressor. Look at how the party grovels before Mr Obaseki after he gave them a little bit of the money he forcefully took from them, their wives, mothers, fathers and children.’
The party advised Edo people to desist from succumbing to the whims and caprices of a Governor who had robbed them continually for four years and was planning to win them back by giving them fractions of what was rightfully theirs.