Nigeria’s billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote, reportedly intervened in the crisis between the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole, and Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki.
However, his efforts to reconcile the two politicians failed, according to a former Edo State Governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor.
Osunbor, in a statement, also said efforts to broker peace between the warring APC chieftains by the Oba of Benin, Ewuare II, were not successful.
Part of the statement read, “Given my position in the party, I have made efforts outside of public glare towards bringing about reconciliation by speaking to the two leading protagonists, the National Chairman Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and His Excellency the Governor of Edo State Godwin Obaseki as well as some of their supporters.
“I also tried to rally some elders of the party from the State to broker peace. It is common knowledge that our revered royal father, His Royal Majesty the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II made his own efforts including appealing to our President Mohammadu Buhari to help broker peace among these two illustrious sons of Edo State.
“It is also believed that their mutual friend Dr. Aliko Dangote made repeated efforts at reconciliation to no avail. So did a number of others that I know.”
The Professor of Law lamented that National Reconciliation Committee which was reconstituted in February 2020 has not yet completed its assignment.
With this, Osunbor warned that it was not advisable for the party to proceed with its primaries ahead of Edo 2020 as planned.
The APC chieftain cautioned that the party would emerge victorious in the governorship election but might lose in court.
He said, “The reason that reconciliation is imperative is that if the Party conducts rancorous primaries and goes into the governorship elections divided, winning will become more difficult than it should be ordinarily, given the weakness of the opposition in the State.
“There is no doubt at all that the APC Candidate will win the forthcoming election but we must be mindful not to lose the victory in court because of a flaw in the process that produced the candidate.
“For now the signs are not good. There is danger ahead. We must avoid pitfalls. I, therefore, make this clarion call on the APC national leadership to act urgently and decisively to put our house in order by fostering reconciliation before it is too late. We need to tread with caution.” (Punch)
