In identifying Senator Adams Oshiomhole as an enemy of Edo State progress, we will go into some details to elucidate clearly Oshiomhole’s sinister moves against the State. We will start with the voting pattern of his Edo North senatorial district and its constituent makeup.
Edo North voting strength based on 2020 Edo gubernatorial election:
ETSAKO
* Etsako East (Agenebode) 27,679 votes.
* Etsako Central (Fugar) 15,837 votes.
* Etsako West (Auchi) 44,099 votes.
• Total number of votes in Etsako 87,615
OWAN/AKOKO EDO
* Owan East (Afuze) 34,057 votes.
* Owan West (Sabongida Ora) 22,678 votes.
* Akoko Edo (Igarra) 43,064 votes.
•Total number of votes in Owan/Akoka Edo 99,799.
From this voting pattern, it is clear that Etsako people are numerically less when the Edo North voting population is considered.
As of today, the State Deputy Governor and the Speaker, Edo State House of Assembly are from Akoko Edo and Owan, respectively.
This is an undisputed opportunity for people of Akoko Edo and Owan to exert their lead in Edo North as people in the majority and take their political destiny in their hands.
Oshiomhole, Phillip Shaibu, Jaret Tenebe, Abubakar Momoh (Minister for Niger Delta), and Dan Orbih, all Etsako, have always used Owan/Akoko Edo to achieve political relevance and dominance. Oshiomhole, as grand author of tribalism and grand patron of tribal hatred, has, in his display of wickedness, continued to deceive other Edo North tribes of Owan and Akoko Edo. His much touted mantra that he is fighting for the interest of Edo North political relevance is nothing but hogwash.
He uses the Owans and Akoko Edos as pawns to service the political relevance and fortunes of his Etsako tribe.
Oshiomhole brought tribalism into Edo State politics in 2008, using his Etsako tribe of 9% of Edo State population to suppress and oppress all other tribes in the State.
He continually uses the Owan and Akoko Edo tribes as Etsako tools to launch his marginalization quest from Edo North against the entire State.
Appointments that are supposed to be spread across Edo State, Oshiomhole hijacks to the benefit of only his Etsako people under the guise of getting it for Edo North.
Today, 95% of slots for Federal appointments to Edo State since 2015, have gone to Edo North and in Edo North, to Oshiomhole’s Etsako tribe, to the exclusion of Owan and Akoko Edo people who invariably he sees as slaves to him and his Etsako people.
Oshiomhole has never shied away from displaying his greed and hatred for all other tribes in Edo State, especially the Esan tribe where coincidentally his late wife was from, but which he has found difficult to penetrate, he having penetrated the Benins.
According to him, all he needs to do to deceive the Benins is to throw grains at them, and like chickens, they’d scramble for the grains. He has continued to employ divide and rule tactics to undermine the other tribes.
A case in point is his penchant for abusing Edo South citizens, calling them thieves and men of questionable character, only to turn around and prop such men up for elective positions.
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Hon Dennis Idahosa, his former commissioner, readily come to mind. These are men he has ruined their reputations to the extent that most Edolites see them as fraudsters.
In the run-up to the race for the forthcoming gubernatorial election in the State, Oshiomhole found it impossible to support such APC men as ex-Dep Gov. Pius Odubu, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, Hon. Lucky Imasuen and Gen Charles Airhiavbere.
When, courtesy of strong opposition led by Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, he failed to annoint Hon Dennis Idahosa as governorship candidate, a man he had earlier worked with but sacked for, according to him, being a fraudster and thief, he foisted him on APC gubernatorial candidate Senator Monday Okpebholo as running mate. Funny enough, Senator Monday Okpebholo is a complete clueless and unintelligent man, with no iota of idea of what governance is.
What a combination of a daft as governor and fraudster (according to Oshiomhole) as a running mate that Oshiomhole is selling to Edo State. Oshiomhole must be dreaming of installing himself as Tinubu of Edo State. Fortunately, Edo no be Lagos.
His deception is evident in his control of political dividends accruing to Edo State from the federal government. Here, for example, are federal appointments, as of today:
• Federal Minister, Edo North, Etsako tribe – Abubakar Momoh.
• EFCC Secretary, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• Police Service Commission, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• Senator Edo North, Etsako
since 2015 with Oshiomhole an Etsako as the incumbent.
• FERMA, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• SSA to NDDC MD, Edo North, Etsako tribe.
• At every opportunity, he fills the slot with his Etsako tribesmen.
This is how devilish and deep Oshiohmole’s hatred is, for the rest of Edo State – the Owan and Akoko Edo in Edo North, the Esan (Edo Central) and the Benins of (Edo South).
The September 21 governorship election in Edo State has awakened a political consciousness for a progressive Edo State that will rejig our political equation.
This conscious protest is what has brought out the worst in Etsako gang of thugs – Phillip Shaibu, (who had earlier told the world that Oshiomhole has mental health issues, and who Jaret Tenebe had accused of stealing his wristwatch), Jaret Tenebe, (who Oshiomhole told us was a dismissed Army recruit who has been in and out of detention for pipeline vandalisation), Dan Orbih, (who Oshiomhole had disgraced by publishing pictures of his private part), and Oshiomhole, in concert with devilish Edo APC.
Unfortunately, their scheming to outwit the rest of Edo people in the election of September 21, 2024, is dead at inception.
Towards the September 21st governorship election, Oshiomhole has not relented in spewing out lies, propaganda, and concocted stories. However, he met his match today, the 7th of August, on Arise TV Morning Show, when the duo of Oseni Rufai and a lady anchor proved him a liar.
He had gone lying about Asue Ighodalo, PDP, and the Congress that produced Asue Ighodalo. I thought by now, Oshiomhole would have been humbled by the humiliation that removed him from office as National Chairman of APC. I didn’t know that Oshiomhole was this shameless.
The Owan and Akoko Edo must close ranks. People of Edo South must, as a matter of urgency, learn to love and respect one another instead of allowing themselves to be used against one another. Oshiomhole is our common enemy who has betrayed all Edo Southerners who were instrumental to his rise to political prominence – Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, ex-Gov Lucky Igbinedion, Pastor Osage Ize-Iyamu, ex-Gov Odigie Oyegun, late Capt Hosa Okunbo, among many others. He has not spared the revered Oba of Benin in his dubious scheming either. Remember Oshiomhole once told a group of his Etsako people in Abuja, that kneeling down before the Oba of Benin is not a mark of respect, but his way of deceiving the Benins as they hold their Oba in very high esteem and place only God above him, the Oba.
Dr Stanley Omoregie lectures at the University of Benin.