Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), said his greatest sin against the governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has been his decision to embark on peace mission and reconciliation among party leaders.
The Herald gathered that Oshiomhole made this comment in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Simon Egbuebulem on Saturday, December 21.
The APC National Chairman said he made several attempts to reconcile Obaseki with party leaders in the state to avoid mass defection.
The statement read, “As part of my efforts to resolve the problems in Edo state, there was a time the governor told me that he will not have anything to do with Charles Idahosa because he lost his booth during his own governorship election and so what is his electoral value?
“It is here in my living room that I invited Idahosa. He did not know the governor was coming. I invited the governor and he did not know Idahosa was coming. When the governor entered the room, Idahosa sat down and said he was not going to have a handshake with him.
“He used a language that, for me was derogatory. I said no, Charles you cannot talk like that. This is the governor and you must respect him. And I say, governor please whatever Charles has done that you are not happy about, we have won, put them behind you.
“I said in this business, if you don’t work with people because of their electoral value, sometimes you work with them because of their nuisance value. So you will not gain by saying you won’t work with this one or that one.
“If you ask Rev. Egharevba, I got to know that he was not participating in APC activities because of the way the governor was treating them. I drove to his house and I said Rev, I met you in this party, so why are you leaving the party now. They were in ACN then before I came to form an alliance with them.
“He said you introduced this man to us and look at the way he is treating everybody now. I said okay, with time he will change. I now asked him, in any case, Reverend, you are living the house for who.
“Those in government are the tenants in power. The landlords are the members in the party and the leaders. They are the owners of the party and it is the party that produced the governor. So if you are not happy with the governor and you are running away because of the governor, are you leaving your own house for a tenant. This tenant’s maximum stay is eight years tenancy, but your party membership can be for life.”