₦airaland Forum

At the centre of the struggle was the control of Edo State House of Assembly. All the 24 state legislators in the state are members of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
To prevent Oshiomhole’s loyalists from taking control of the state legislature, nine out of the 24 lawmakers met at night to inaugurate the assembly and elected Okiye as speaker. Osifo and the 13 others went to court to file a case against the speaker and the eight others.
While the case was in court, the seats of the 14 Oshiomhole loyalists were declared vacant by the factional speaker and was about to conduct election to fill the positions before he was stopped by the court.
All efforts to find amicable settlement by the party, the National Assembly and the president was frustrated by Obaseki’s minority bent on holding on to what it illegally seized.
But beyond playing the victim, I think Nigerians would want Obaseki to answer some questions. His supporters say he was trying to prevent Oshiomhole who persuaded Edo people to vote for him in 2016 from breathing down his throat.
Was it before or after the midnight coup by his nine supporters and his inauguration of the assembly? Why was he desperate to take control of the house when there was no indication of conflict between him and his godfather that has just helped him to victory? How did he fall out with 14 elected members of the house even before its inauguration? If all Obaseki was trying to do with the midnight coup against his own government was to protect the scarce resources of Edo from his godfather, why is he trading a godfather that has no history of treasury looting for professional PDP looters that had been indicted by the courts for leaving Edo State like a war-ravaged city before Oshiomhole took over?
In a participatory democracy, the party is supreme. How come Obaseki who was faithful to the rules of the party on whose back he rode to power suddenly found the same rule so objectionable that he was prepared to destroy the instrument which brought him to power?

https://medium.com/@jideolublog/obaseki-archetypal-new-breed-politician-f62d14062d4c