Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
The embattled governor of Edo state has described the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, as a pathological betrayal having betrayed God in his promises to Edo people.
Speaking to newsmen after submitting his completed Expression of Interest and Nomination Forms at the party’s secretariat,  Obaseki claimed that he sacrificed so much to ensure Oshiomhole won the Edo governorship ticket and equally emergenced the National Chairman of the ruling party.
Although he did not explicitly explain the sacrifice he made to aid his emergence as party chairman, the governor however claimed that Oshiomhole was broke before contesting for governorship.
He insisted that Oshiomhole should restrain himself from participating in the nomination process because he cannot guarantee credibility as an interested party.
Asked why he betrayed his predecessor after making him governor, he thundered: “In life everybody get helped, everybody get assisted. The person talked about 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 probono, 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?
“The reason I went to see our National Leader is that I don’t want the party turn 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 been 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.
“On a final note, I am actively pursuing peace, actively pursuing harmony in our party, particularly at home and I believe that’s e will secure peace.
“However, I am using this opportunity to call on Comrade Oshiomhole to recluse himself from the Edo nomination process because he is an interest 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 recluse himself and lets have a free process and lets reconcile and build our party,” he charged.
On why he wants to recontest, the Edo governor said: “three years is not enough, four years is not enough to crystalize all these reforms and we have all witnesses in Nigerian to have genuine reforms truncated. So, another four years will give me that opportunity to consolidate what we have done and that is a promise of APC.
“We are a reformist party, we are a progressive party. That’s why I am here today to indicate my interest and my desire to run for another term as governors of Edo so that I can continue in the service of my people,” he said.
The governor equally spoke on the mode of primaries, emphasising that though he is sure of victory whether the party adopted direct or indirect, however, the constitutional stipulations must be religiously followed.
“The basis of any democracy are rules, that is why the most important document in our party is our constitution. Our constitution is very detailed and it spells out clearly how we should undertake our affairs as a party.
The Constitution stipulates what mode of primaries allowed in our party and how decisions to the type of primaries you want to run should arrive that.
“It’s clearly stated in our constitution and so for me, I believe that our lawful party and we will do things according to the Constitution of our party. So, direct, indirect I am certain I will win the primaries but we have to respect our constitution and followed our constitution,” he insisted.
On the trending report that he is planning to join the opposition party, the PDP, he replied:
“It is very absurd. I am someone that is very exposed. How can I collect from two parties when we have rulings in past disqualifying people on that. I am a party man to the core. APC is my party because I come from a progressive political family.
“I believe in the ideals of APC, I believe in our President, I believe in what he stands for so I am a party man to the core. I am not an old styled politician. I represent a new direction of politics that is based on facts and truth not lies,” he said.
On the efforts to battle COVID-19 in his state, he said: “Our response in Edo has been very robust, our goal from day one is that whatever decision we want to take has to be informed by data and research and that is what we have done. And in order to arrive at set of decisions make. What we decided was that we are going to screen 500,000 citizens of Edo state, about 10 per cent of our population and test up to a minimum of 5,000 to understand the prevalence of this virus in the state.
“As at this morning we have already screened 312,000 and we have tested 2018 samples and we have almost 300 cases. From the Epidomological surveys they tell us that the pandemic will spike in the third week of June in Edo. We seen cases rising rapidly. We want to know who is infected and how to stop the spread. For me, the safety of Edo people is my primary concern because if the people are not alive you won’t be there to lead them,” he quipped.