The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State has called on a Benin Chief, Gabriel Igbinedion, to defend himself on the allegations levelled at him by Governor Adams Oshiomhole in his address at the ceremony to mark his 7th anniversary in office and stop stoking unnecessary sentiments.
In a statement signed by the APC State Publicity Secretary, Comrade Godwin Erhahon, the party said the Benin Chief has continued to dish out falsehood to distort the facts of the Governor’s address in order to score cheap points.
He said: “we have watched with amusement, the desperate attempts by Chief Gabriel Igbinedion and his sympathizers to portray the Comrade Governor, Adams Oshiomhole as the villain.
“It would be recalled that Chief Igbinedion had, since 2012, deployed his radio and television stations to conduct incessant and undeserved campaign of calumny and falsehood against the person and office of the Comrade Governor until early this year.
“The Independent Radio and TV (ITV) had at a time publicly apologized, recanted their stories and the virulent attacks abated. From what we now know, the renewed onslaught against the Governor is directly attributable to the fact that he exposed the scandalous transfer of state land to the Chief in questionable circumstances during the tenure of his son Chief Lucky Igbinedion as Governor.
“There is also the issue of using Government facilities to train students in private institutions owned by Chief Gabriel Igbinedion at the expense of Edo tax payers while the chief smiles to the bank with hundreds of millions of naira. The Governor equally exposed how his son, former Governor Lucky Igbinedion awarded the contract for the construction of Iguobazuwa-Okada road to his younger brother, Bright Igbinedion who diverted the contract sum to construct roads within Igbinedion University, leaving the people of Okada and the neighbourhood to continue to suffer and risk their lives on the bad road.
“We believe that the Comrade Governor has exhibited a very rare quality of courage in reversing what obviously constitutes abuse. He should be commended for exposing the anomalies and redressing same to those people who have allowed themselves to be used as protesters in exchange for a mess of pottage, we say they should hide their heads in shame. It is very obvious that they have acted in ignorance. The chief they have come out to support has not denied any of the allegations by the Comrade Governor.
“We call on him to speak on the issues and stop whipping up petty sentiments.
“Those who do not want the progress of Edo State must not be allowed to have their way.”
