Former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole has replied to his successor, Governor Godwin Obaseki’s call for his arrest on allegations of instigating the protests that erupted in the state last week over the new naira notes controversy.
Gatekeepers News reports that while speaking to journalists in Benin City on Saturday, the Former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) insisted that Obaseki lacks the power to order the arrest of any citizen of the state.
Oshiomhole added that the Governor’s action was part of the reasons some people are opposed to state police, fearing that it could easily be abused by some State Governors.
“The law is very clear. If a crime has been committed it is up to the security agencies to investigate and if they find the need to invite people for questioning, they will definitely do so. The police have not and I will be surprised if they have now degenerated to taking orders from a politician who is faced with the crisis of confidence while the people have been voting against him.
“There are huge issues of the legitimacy of his government and he thinks that he can order police to arrest whoever he considers to be his political opponent. But let me say that Obaseki is a victim of his own double standard. He says one thing today, he does another the following day. I think Obaseki after embarrassing the Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, when he accused him of printing billions of naira to share for states by way of federation account and that Emefiele’s policies are going to destroy the naira even as he admitted that the money was being shared to state governments.
“So Obaseki wanting to make money out of this hardship suddenly became pro-CBN governor, defending anti-people policies, where your people are groaning and he has made the wrong assumption that Edo people do not know their right from their left.”
On the new naira controversy, Oshiomhole said, “In the cause of campaigning, it is painful when I hear people complain to me about the challenges they are having. I have never hesitated in denouncing it and I will continue to denounce it because it is not the policy of APC,” he said.
