Edo 2024: Governor Obaseki's Old Tricks

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By Kassim Afegbua

The desperation of Governor Obaseki to install his annointed candidate, Asue Akintunde Ighodalo, is now at a fever pitch and riding on the bloody path of Golgothar.

Yes, the plot is meant to spill blood everywhere. The present game being orchestrated by the state government by all manner of tricks, plots, sub-plots and deliberate machinations is quite unfortunate; but Edo will withstand him.

Edo citizens will not be sacrificed to the baals of desperation. Edo citizens will be alive to tell the continuation story of how they survived the despotism of Godwin Obaseki after the second invasion of Benin Palace; even though the monarchy of Benin is seriously under threat.

Roosevelt said in one of his homilies, that a leader contemplates his successor the same way he contemplates death.

We have come to the epicentre of such reality; where the thought of APC succeeding Governor Obaseki is giving the outgoing governor serious nightmares; the thought of defeat for him, is scary; and as with Macbeth, everyone is perceived as the enemy.

Frustrations, desperation, machinations, manipulations, fearfulness, suspicion, drunkenness and intoxication have all combined to bake the psychological trauma that is depressively overwhelming the governor as he battles to remain relevant by producing a successor; and the height of the resistance to his plot benumbs the governor everyday.

He has resorted to various tricks; this one is a very old trick that exposes the hypocrisy and double standards of a man who made noises to the rooftops against godfatherism a few years ago, now cavorting about the place wearing the garb of a godfather.

He has decided to recruit some of his footsoldiers into his phlegmatic vigilante group, which is presently being trained in the Edo Hotel premises.

The plan is to after training, engage them as Governor Obaseki’s footsoldiers; with the name, Obaseki Police, and illegally arm them to visit mayhem on members of the opposition, APC.

Another trick is his declaring of Okhaighele as an illegal body and banning them barely five months to his exit from office; and in a third furtive move, he is pretending to be fighting against cultism, whereas some of his principal officers in government are alleged to be members of different cult groups, ready to unleash mayhem in the state.

The whole idea is to accuse and arrest some members of the APC who are major stakeholders in the state and brand them as cultists, in order to send fear into town that the streets would be brutal.

He plans that on election day, members of his vigilante group would dress in police uniforms aquired through subterranean means and disguised as members of the Nigeria Police Force to do the bidding of the outgoing Governor.

These are his plans. He plans to also recruit some INEC staff through his Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Wole Uzzi, a former INEC Director to man the boundary communities bordering Delta and Ondo, to manipulate the process.

Two of such meetings I understand have already been held, and plans are afoot to sustain more meetings. I am unable to confirm the venue of the meeting as at the time of writing this.

It’s been a series of acts of desperation; one after the other. When leaders are losing their grip on the power rostrum, they expose their plot unwittingly.

All the aforementioned are weather beaten tricks that won’t fly in this coming election.

We know that other plans are being withheld for now, until a time when it will be ripe enough to detonate them right before our very eyes.; but as I said before, Edo people will withstand him.

At present, some principal officers of the government headed by Osarodion Ogie, are reaching out to some strong APC leaders, trying to woo them into the PDP fold.

Chief Francis Inegbeneki has just recently become their latest casualty for obvious reasons. I will come to this at another time, but we surely know the script being orchestrated and we are following it systematically.

If they think Chief Inegbeneki will fall prey to their desperate plot, they might have entered a cul-de-sac.

The whole idea being orchestrated is to create palpable fear in the minds of the people, under the pretext of fighting cultists.

They plan to unleash terror on harmless members of the opposition, get them arrested only to release them after the election.; old, weather beaten tricks that no longer come with a surprise element.

The signs of things to come was exposed by one of their spokesmen in a viral video in which the PDP threatened mayhem against those not cooperating with their dubious plots.

Self-acclaimed Reverend Olu Martins, a man with neither a forwarding address nor is he the owner of any church for that matter, came out smoking hot in his threat message to members of the opposition. His revelation was an eye opener of what is to come.

The threat was real and we expect the Edo Police Command to take action against Mr. Olu Martins who has threatened to deal decisively with those who are not cooperating with them.

Mr Martins also gave reasons why they (the PDP) have been vandalising billboards of other political party candidates, making allusions to Lagos state.

For Olu Martins, intimidation, threat and violence are the only viable currency. A contest of ideas is not an attraction to him.

What these PDP bigots intend to do with those new recruits into their so-called vigilante group, is to equip them with illegal arms, and unleash them into society because there is a clear disdain for Governor Obaseki’s misrule; it is a matter of by fire, by force.

With the tempo being set by Olu Martins and his ilk, Edo may become another slaughter slab; God forbid.

Elections are supposed to be elegant exercises that guarantee free expression and franchise by the people in electing their preference, but with this state government that has gotten to the end of its logic, installing a successor is all that is of interest; it is a do or die affair.

With the odds clearly against Governor Obaseki and his annointed candidate, coupled with his umbrage at our highly respected Oba of Benin, the September 21st election will be a walk over for the APC and her candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo.

Governor Obaseki has shown clearly that the Benin Monarchy MUST be decimated at all cost.

A monarchy that has earned its stature, gravitas, and pride of place is now being targeted by Godwin Obaseki like an unfinished business.

His latest tangle is the ban placed on the Okhaigheles, the Oba of Benin’s errand boys on communal matters, who have become Governor Obaseki’s public enemy number one.

The sacrilege alone is daunting. The abominable acts being orchestrated to pulverize our cultural heritage are self-evident.

The ferocity to undermine the monarchy is tellingly obvious for all to see. Day after day, fresh machinations and invidious plots are thrown in the public space to convey conquistadorial authority, flanked by copious lies and propaganda.

Projects that were hitherto abandoned are suddenly being attended to, same old tricks to deceive the people.

The outgoing government is losing steam and acceptability. It is obvious that Edo people need the candour, humility and calm disposition of Senator Monday Okpebholo, to restore sanity to a state that is flustered by the indecent conduct of the governor.

Okpebholo’s humility and candour are seen as the ultimate elixir needed to heal Edo’s blistering wounds, inflicted by a megalomaniac governor and his dithering apostles of violence.

On the streets of Benin, one sees palpable fear on the faces of the people. One demolition after another, one threat statement after another, all in a bid to implant a surrogate to succeed a failed regime.

I do not envy Governor Obaseki for his crippling policies that are deceitfully orchestrated to cajole the people. He needs to travel the route of the impossible. Edo people are a very enlightened lot.

They cannot be deceived for too long. They now understand their Governor very well. They are familiar with his lying nature, now.

They now see the flooding across the state, they feel the pains of insecurity, the people are helpless with bad roads and eroded streets.

In order to stimulate their interest in him, he announced a 70k minimum wage, with hardly anyone left in the the Edo civil service to even pay. September 21st fast approaching, and the orgy of defeat stares Governor Obaseki in the face like a plague.

Everyday, more and more members of the PDP are leaving for the opposition APC. The desperation is gaining currency and the threats are to harm Edo people, because they are rejecting Obaseki’s annointed.

The coming months are going to be interesting; and Governor Obaseki should be alerted that we are familiar with his old tricks.

Those old tricks won’t work this time. And if they think Edo people will succumb to their threats as captured by his publicist, Olu Martins, they will be shocked!!!. September 21st is upon us, and all things Obaseki and his annointed must go!!!