A frontline governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has dared the State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, over the temporary ban he placed on political rallies in the State.
This is even as he vowed that his faction of the party will resist any attempt to rubbish the national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Ize-Iyamu made the challenge on Thursday in Benin, during an emergency press briefing held by a faction of the party in the state to address issues arising from the Wednesday’s Abuja Federal High Court ruling which suspended Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as Chairman of the party.
The former governorship candidate of the PDP, said so long Obaseki has continued to hold rallies in the state, their faction of the party will also go ahead to hold rallies.
“We want to put a notice to the Governor that we are not under captivity in Edo State. We cannot be oppressed, we cannot be intimated.
“Sometimes ago out of desperation, the state government announced that they have banned rally in Edo State. Where that authority came from, we were not told.
“I believe he thinks that as a Governor, he can by fierce make decrees, but we need to make him know that in civilian dispensation, there are rules and procedures.
“We don’t understand where the authority came from, to ban rally. But the funny thing is that, the same rally the government ban, I am sure you are aware that in the past one week, the same law the government made, it has flouted. He had held a rally at Iruwa, and only yesterday, he held one at Uroukpota Hall (in Benin.)
Ize-Iyamu said that the Governor cannot be holding rallies and prohibit them from holding rallies.
“So we want to put him on notice that we will begin to hold rallies, and we are waiting for him as an Emperor of Edo State, to put us in jail. As long as he has no respect for what himself had decreed, we too will do what he is doing,” he said.
ALSO READ: ASUU Praises ‘Heroic’ Edo Community For Rescue Of Kidnapped UNIBEN Lecturers, Students
Speaking on the Abuja High Court ruling that suspended Adams Oshiomhole as national chairman of APC on Wednesday, Ize-Iyamu described as ridiculous for the court to have relied on a document signed by three of the 27 ward executive members of the party in Oshiomhole’s ward.
He further stated that “one ward out of the 192 in the state cannot remove the national chairman.
“The overwhelming majority of us hold the national chairman of our party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in the highest esteem. We appreciate him and we believe that he has done very well.
“Adams Oshiomhole is an asset to APC in Edo state and in Nigeria. And we want to make it clear that we will resist any attempt by anybody to rubbish him.
“We have said it over and over again that our disposition to peace should not be mistaken for weakness. We have gone out this afternoon to say that we stand solidly behind Oshiomhole. Even his ward in Etsako stands solidly behind him,” he added.
