…urge party NWC to caution governor
Osemwengie Ben Ogbemudia, Benin
Some chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress in Edo State have described the recent suspension of four local government chairmen in Edo State by Governor Godwin Obaseki as dictatorial, urging the party’s National Working Committee to call him to order.
The APC chieftains said that the suspension of the council chairmen without the observance of the due process of the law of the state was a show of sheer desperation by the governor.
A chieftain of the party in Edo North Senatorial District, Garuba Sylvanus, said that before Governor Obaseki could demand equity from the council chairmen he had accused of corruption, he must first come with clean hands.
Sylvanus accused the governor of descending so low by allegedly suspending the council chairmen from office over trumped charges allegedly concocted in collaboration with two other top functionaries of his government against the local government officials.
He said, “Since over three months now, this present government has been suspending APC party faithful due to its political gullibility, vindictiveness, desperation and grandstanding. As a neophyte in the murky turf of feisty politics, we can see all the voice of Jacob and the hand of Esau. The handiwork of his musketeers, the incredulous Philip Shuaibu and the crafty Osarodion Ogie.
“This scenario succinctly buttresses that saying that when you are pointing an accusing finger at a person, the remaining four inadvertently point right back at you. How can one with a log in his eyes accuse one that has a speck in his own? Obaseki is pointing corruption finger at people forgetting that he has a lot of skeletons in his closet.
“How on Earth will Obaseki be suspending people on grounds of corruption, when he has a mountain of alleged corrupt cases against him. He is invariably guiltier than the accused and the suspended. With series of corruption laden MOUs with his foreign conspirators and culprits, some in excess of N500million. The scam that Gelegele Seaport and Benin Industrial Park have become are all few cases of corruption this government is enmeshed in, that warrants possible impeachment. This is tax payers’ money being diverted and expended, used to organise fake rallies, used to procure illegal court injunction. State funds used to bribe the judiciary to get fake court orders. Now the question is who is more corrupt and should be suspended?”
Sylvanus added, “However, in a testament that the will of the people supersedes Executive rascality, the botched suspension attempts on the most dignified Honourable former minority whip, Federal House of Representatives, Rt. Hon Samson Osagie; the dogged Hon. Washington Osa Osifo and Hon. Chris Okaiben, both members-elect, Edo State House of Assembly; the recent public reactions to the suspension of Hon. Musa Yakubu, Chairman of Etsako West LGA, Etsako East LGA and the latest the Chairman of Esan West LGA , Egor LGA and more to be suspended, as we are hearing.
“His autocratic nature and his show of aggression transfer led him into sacking all political appointees in Egor Local Government Area, the local government of Hon. Henry Idahagbon, former attorney general and commissioner for justice. This obviously is consequent upon his roles in the Edo’s People’s Movement. They also suspended the vice chairman and a councilor in Akoko Edo Local Government Area for their affiliation that led them to publicly celebrate the victory of Hon Peter Apatason at the Supreme Court.
“Mr. Governor keeps committing political sacrilege and keeps desecrating the altar of political correctness and righteousness, which is not forgivable. This, politically are mortal sins and the retribution will come speedily. He that wants to come to equity must and should do so with clean hands and not the soiled muddy hands of Obaseki. It is high time the National Working Committee of APC looked into the inordinate atrocities of Governor Godwin Obaseki and punish him accordingly for the numerous anti-party activities he has committed and his mingling with the opposition.”
Also, Governor Obaseki’s former chief press secretary, Mr. John Mayaki, said the suspension of the four council chairmen from office was an act of lawlessness, unconstitutional and a violation of the protected duties of the local governments to independently administer its affairs.
Mayaki accused the governor of violating a Supreme Court judgment delivered in 2016, where a five-man panel led by Justice Olabode Rhodes-Vivour, ruled on an appeal of similar suspension of local government executives in Ekiti State and deemed the act as unconstitutional and in violation of the protected duties of the local government to independently administer its affairs.
Mayaki who recalled that Governor Obaseki “illegally” suspended the Chairmen of Etsako West, Hon. Yakubu Musa; Etsako East, Hon. Aligame Momoh; Esan West, Hon. Patrick Aguinede and Hon Eghe Ogbemudia, said, “Democracy is on trial in Edo State with the dictatorial attitude and disposition of Governor Godwin Obaseki. I want to call on President Muhammadu Buhari, the National Assembly and the Judiciary to intervene as soon as possible to avert anarchy and lawlessness.
“The governor, presently is enmeshed in a political battle for survival after sensing a widespread rejection of his planned second term ambition and has decided to axe local government chairmen unwilling to join in his bid to divert council allocations to the state, both internally generated and from the Federal purse, to private accounts, where he can access them at will to bolster his political chances of clinching a term renewal.”
“The Supreme Court judgment held that Section 7(1) of the Constitution guarantees the system of local government by democratically-elected local government councils and confers sacrosanctity on the elections of such officials whose electoral mandates derive from the will of the people freely exercised through the democratic process.
“It, therefore, strips the governor of any power to unilaterally remove elected Local Government officials or interfere in its dealings without violating the constitution he swore to protect. Obaseki’s disregard for this clear constitutional guideline is consistent with his growing dictatorship and neglect of the rule of law in favor of repression, brutal clampdown on dissenters, and a tyrannical rule of the gun.”
