The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has urged the Edo State governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to tow the path of honour and admit that on several occasions, he went on all fours to join the PDP.
The party said instead of allowing his peripheral sidekicks, who know little or nothing about the issue, to continue to lie to Nigerians, he should speak out.
“We only challenged him on a well documented overtures he desperately made to join our party. This challenge, he has not taken up because he knows the truth. Let him speak out,” the party said in a statement issued on Monday by its National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh .
Describing as an absurd reductionism, the attempt by the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) to establish the victory of Governor Oshiohmole at the July 12, 2012 Edo State governorship election as a foreclosure on the capacity of the PDP to win other elections in the state, PDP said the decision of its national leadership to congratulate Oshiomhole on that election did not vitiate the heavy allegations of rigging which its Edo state chapter holds against it.
“We view this step as necessary in the background of porous and laughable defence posted by both the ACN and low cadre assistants to Governor Oshiomhole. This challenge is direct to the Comrade Governor. Let him prove wrong, a well documented overtures he made to join the PDP, a party he lately labeled “party of rogues.”
“ A word from the horse’s mouth will either settle this matter or further provide an avenue into the wicked lie that several leaders of the opposition live in our dear nation,” Metuh said in the statement.
On the assertion by the ACN that the PDP could not have won a seat at the recent Edo Local Government election, the statement said, “What a fudgy logic the ACN is engaged in? What a way to explain out; justify the heist that characterised the recent Local Government elections in the state!
“That because Governor Oshiomhole won the state governorship election, the ACN must win all the seats in a local election determined majorly by the weight and popularity of the individual grassroots contenders.”
The party said such a scenario was an obvious remote possibility, especially in Edo State where the PDP commands credible politicians as well as wide and staunch membership.
According to the statement, “On a scale of fairness therefore, the PDP still has the capacity to match or out match the ACN in local elections. For it to shamelessly justify hence, the massive rigging of the Edo Local Government elections with this sheer lack of critical thinking, is verily laughable.”
PDP maintained that “our main worry is that the ACN is committed to pulling down every effort in the direction of credible election which is cardinal in our agenda of development since democracy shades every value without the right of the people to freely chose. This explains our commitment, the result of which Nigerians and the international community attest to.
“Unfortunately, the conduct of local government elections in the states under the opposition ACN is a big throw back. The will of the people in the Edo local elections was shamelessly subverted.”
The statement however added: “We do not wish to debate here the contentious performance of Governor Oshiomhole for it pales into insignificance when compared to that of other PDP State Governors. We do not also need to attack Governor Oshiomhole for reasons of relevance as his party alleged.
“ We only challenged him on a well documented overtures he desperately made to join our party. This challenge, he has not taken up because he knows the truth. Let him speak out. “.
