GOVERNOR Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, yesterday, received over 4,000 members of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, into All Progressives Congress, APC, even as he called on the state Police Command to stop arresting innocent people over last Saturday’s violent attack on the state House of Assembly quarters in Benin.
Similarly, the governor alleged that the meeting on how to attack the Assembly quarters was held at the residence of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who recently defected from APC to PDP.
Similarly, the governor alleged that the meeting on how to attack the Assembly quarters was held at the residence of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who recently defected from APC to PDP.
He, however, appealed to APC members not to retaliate, explaining that the only way to deal with PDP in the state “is not to march them violence for violence, but to keep them out of power.”
But in a swift reaction, Ize-Iyamu declared that he knew nothing about what the governor was talking about, declaring that “no meeting was held in my house and I will challenge anybody to prove me wrong. He is talking rubbish. I do not know when he became a security man.
“Dr. Mayor, who he is talking about, was in APC until we left. He is the one carrying all the thugs in town and he knows the cases against those people.
“He cannot continue to accuse people recklessly. Ask Ihonvbere; I expressed shock that day at the airport because I never believe in violence. I never got involved in that.
“I joined PDP in May. Why will they accuse me of everything that happens? There was no meeting held in my house. He knows he created all these problems. I have left APC. Why is he accusing me wrongly. Most of those guys in APC are my people, so why will I go and kill them?”
But Oshiomhole, who addressed the PDP defectors, led by former Secretary of PDP in Ikpoba Okhai, Mr. Onaiwu Ugbogbo, five ward chairmen of PDP and other APC supporters, said: “All the people who carry Bible in the afternoon and plot about killing of human beings, political hell will be their portion.
“I just want to advise all those plotting violence that Edo State cannot be conquered by small time criminals. We have the capacity and the capability to protect ourselves.
“We will not go for anybody’s blood because we do not need it; but we will keep them out of power. Never will they smell Osadebey Avenue.”
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