According to Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, Edo North Senator Adams Oshiomhole is not a dictator as his opponents have claimed. Rather, the governor said, the federal lawmaker allows to handle the affairs of the state without interference.
“Even the man that they say is a dictator is not dictating anything, I am seeing a different Oshiomhole. Oshiomhole is giving me a free hand”, Okpebholo said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday.
“Whenever I want to talk to him, he will say: ‘ My son, I know how you feel, just do it your way’. But I will say: ‘ Sir, I won’t do it in my way, please advise me, ‘ and he advises me, and most of the advice comes out to be something positive. You cannot be an island, you have to carry everybody along”.
Okpebholo refuted claims that some godfathers had chosen him to be the state’s top citizen despite him being under surveillance.
READ ALSO: I Don’t Have Godfathers But God Used People To Support Me – Okpebholo
He claimed that Almighty God only used specific individuals to support his campaign for governor and win him over.
“You might as well point out one godfather who was pushing me,” you ask? When questioned about his political ancestry on the program, the governor reacted incredulously.
“God was using people to help me, to support me, to get to where I am today”.
Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, defeated Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP), among others, to win the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo.
Following Godwin Obaseki’s eight years as governor, he was sworn in as governor on November 12, 2024.
Okpebholo’s walk to the Dennis Osadebe Government House was not all rosy. Significantly, Okpebholo, who was formerly Edo Central Senator, leveraged some influence in his senatorial district and joined forces with Oshiomhole to defeat Ighodalo, the anointed candidate of the then-outgoing governor.
Okpebholo’s victory could also be attributed to his alliance with Dennis Idahosa, his then running mate who was a federal lawmaker, and Obaseki’s estranged former deputy, Philip Shaibu.
The APC lost power in the state in 2020 after Obaseki defected from the party to the PDP in the heat of an intra-party squabble and fallout with his predecessor, Oshiomhole.
Obaseki joined the PDP after being denied a ticket to the APC governorship, defeating Osagie Ize-Iyamu to seal his second term, which ended on November 12, 2024.
Source: Channels TV
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