Last week, the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) constituted a 17-member Reconciliation and Mobilization Committee to bring together all aggrieved members and to mobilize members and supporters of the party across the three senatorial districts ahead of the 2016 governorship election in the state.
At the ceremony, Chief Dan Orbih left the main task of the day and in his usual uncouth manner started blabbing like a drunken lance corporal in a mammy market. He started brandishing some fake documents before media men which as claimed, he got from Government House. Only God knows from what state showing figures purportedly being Security votes of hundreds of millions of Naira.
Dan Orbih’s foolish claim was anchored on Comrade Adams Oshiomhole’s revelation of an information obtained in the United States of America that a PDP Minister that served under Goodluck Jonathan stole a staggering $6billion and stashed in offshore account. They claimed that Oshiomhole was not right to tell Nigerians a weighty information he got from the United States of America. But whether the US denies or not, whether the PDP attempts to cover up the privileged information released to Nigerians or not, Oshiomhole merely quoted a US source and time will tell who is telling the truth or not.
Since the ouster of the Goodluck Jonathan administration, there have been endless revelations of billions of dollars stolen by the immediate past administration by different persons and in different fronts. The Jonathan administration was obviously notorious for the mindless thieving of the nation’s common wealth by key leaders of the administration. Already, the digging is in progress, the findings are on-going and at the end arrest of the big, fat thieves would begin and their loots would be recovered and charges pressed against them. That is when Dan Orbih would remember that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole said so. That is when it will be clear to the PDP dregs in Edo State that the massive stealing of public funds will be resisted by Nigerians.
The amount of money spent on security votes by Comrade Adams Oshiomhole was it appropriated by the Edo State House of Assembl or not? Whatever he spent on security did it offend any law of the land? Dan Orbih did not state the law violated by Oshiomhole in his spurious allegations. But Orbih must also be cutting his path to prison if Oshiomhole decides to take him up to the court of law for character assassination. It is obvious Dan Orbih doesn’t know he is toying with fire.
Orbih further amused Edo people when he claimed they went to Abuja to obtain a police report on security in Edo State and that they have a report that Edo is peaceful. If you need security report about Edo State, you do not need to go searching for it in Abuja, but Edo State where the accuser and accused reside. If Edo is peaceful, should Oshiomhole not be commended? He deserves PDP commendation because PDP promoted crime and criminality in Edo when they held sway. The fact that the state is peaceful does not mean Government would not incur expenses. A peaceful state is at a cost in any case.
After his gaffe, Dan Orbih went ahead to constitute what the PDP hangers-on termed Reconciliation and Mobilization committee headed by Chief Raymond Dokpesi. Orbih started by his usual rain of praises on Raymond Dokpesi noting that his choice for the suicide mission “is an all important one whose efforts would go a long way to boost the support base of PDP in the state.”
This is how Dan Orbih, like a clever monkey, would use his ‘sweet nothing’ words to hoodwink the High Chief to use him for selfish purposes. They would then go and deceive some billionaires and give them a pseudo hope that they would be given gubernatorial ticket and fool them to delusion point that they would be made governor in Edo State. They would then start milking them like they milked a retired general four years ago.
This time around, they are set to use Raymond Dokpesi to achieve their narrow, selfish interest of getting some gullible politicians to begin to nurse gubernatorial ambition where there is no place for them in Osadebey Avenue. Last time, I issued a Caveat Emptor on Edo PDP. This time again, I am issuing a Caveat Emptor, i.e Politicians beware! PDP is a sterile party in Edo of today. The Change machine has castrated Edo PDP so gubernatorial hopefuls should beware. Governorship aspirants should not allow Dan Orbih and his cohorts to deceive them because that is how they have been surviving. They have no other jobs they are doing at the empty secretariat order than to trick big shots to believe they have some might whereas they remain paper weight as far as Edo State Politics is concerned.
What reconciliation is Dan Orbih talking about when people have been deceived, hoodwinked , and dumped! What reconciliation are they talking about when dogs are eating dogs in the PDP where pikin deceive papa and papa deceive pikin. the PDP should forget about reconciliation as many have vowed that is a matter of no retreat, no surrender. It is fight to finish. The national secretariat of the PDP is already embroiled in a monumental turmoil and allegations and counter allegations of corruption and nepotism. These allegations and counter allegations are already tearing the party to shreds.
While inaugurating the committee, Thursday, Dan Orbih, said the PDP was ready to occupy Osadebey Avenue, the Edo seat of power. What a dreamer! Which Osadebey Avenue? The one in Benin or Asaba? Dan Orbih must stop building his castle in the fool’s paradise. In the governorship election of next year, there is no way for PDP in Edo State. The party is dead and buried. APC will produce the next governor. So all those who are junketing and building bridges where there are no rivers or sky scrapers in the air should begin to shop for alternative jobs.
I do not yet know of any politician in Edo State that would want to waste his hard earned resources to fly the flag of PDP in a gubernatorial election in Edo State where the APC remains the rock of Gibraltar. The APC will work with Comrade Adams Oshiomhole to produce the next Governor that would continue to build on the solid foundation laid by Oshiomhole. We do not want treasury looters in government any more. PDP is synonymous with treasury looting in today’s Nigeria and no sane person should be deceived.
Mr. Dan Owegie is a Chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State.
