COVID-19: Edo Demands Quarantine Of Oshiomhole’s Loyalists For Holding Political Gathering

The Edo State Government has called on the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to take immediate steps to quarantine over 50 loyalists of the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, for allegedly holding a political gathering in the state.

Governor Godwin Obaseki accused Oshiomhole, who is his predecessor, of flouting the state’s lockdown order by allegedly asking his loyalists to organise a mock governorship primary election in the state last week.

The Edo Progressives Movement (EPM), which is the APC faction loyal to Oshiomhole, was said to have held the mock primary at the residence of a former deputy governor of the state, Lucky Imasuen, with over 50 people in attendance.

A statement signed by Obaseki’s Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, and the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Paul Ohonbamu, called for the arrest and quarantine of all those that participated in the event.

The statement said: “It is not surprising that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has continued his doom-fated attempt to destabilise the Edo State chapter of the APC. But what is most unconscionable is that he is propagating this move at the expense of the safety and wellbeing of Edo people.

“By organising the supposed mock primary on April 30, 2020, with more than 50 persons in attendance, he is undermining efforts of different stakeholders in containing the spread of the virus and also dishonouring all those who have died from this virus. Those who organised the political gathering initially held at Lucky Imasuen’s residence in Benin City later moved to different locations to continue their inglorious show of shame, in the perpetuation of the wishes of their puppet master.

“The antics of Oshiomhole are well-known, but it bears repeating that he is on a mission to re-enact what happened in Rivers, Zamfara and Bayelsa in Edo State. He has continued to perpetuate the factionalising of the party in the state, with an intent to cause the party to lose its opportunity to participate in the forthcoming gubernatorial election,” it stated.