The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), yesterday, advised Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State not to play politics with the innocent souls who lost their lives in the fatal auto crash along Auchi/Benin City road during the week in his convoy.?
The state chairman of the party, Chief Dan Osi Orbih, gave the advice in a crowded press conference in Benin City, the Edo State capital yesterday.
?He was reacting to the allegation by the governor that the accident was masterminded by some forces within the PDP to kill him ahead of the July governorship election in the state
In statements by the director of media and publicity of the Oshiomhole Campaign Organisation, Prince Kassim Afegbua and the Edo State commissioner of information, Mr. Louis Odion, they had both claimed that the accident involving Governor Oshiomhole’s convoy in which four people including three journalists died, was “planned, arranged and executed” by the governor’s opponents in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo State.
Odion, had stated in his press statement said that while the governor and other Good Samaritans were busy trying to retrieve the wounded from the two accident vehicles and comfort the traumatised, a statement signed by the PDP had already landed television and radio stations in Benin City – expressing sympathy and condolence to Oshiomhole and the victims.
However, the PDP said at a press conference that the governor could not be taking seriously over his allegation and challenged him to subject himself for thorough security investigation.
The state PDP chairman, Chief Orbih said, “The ACN accusations came at a time when the blood of the dead people is still warm. To PDP, it is the most cruel9 form of insensitivity to play politics with peoples’ lives, even in death. The modest thing for Governor Oshiomhole ought to have done was to take responsibility for the deaths and do what he needs to, to ease the pains of the families of the departed souls.
“It is absurd for anyone to even suspect that an accident like this one could be arranged. In explaining how the accident occurred Prince Afegbua recounted that a tipper truck emerged from the opposite direction and rammed into the flag vehicle of the governor before crashing into several other vehicles in the convoy leaving three people dead and several others in critical condition.
Any stage manager of an accident like this one has to give a God-type assurance of survival to the driver of the truck to make him take up the job”.
Chief Orbih said that the PDP was at a rally in Ekiadolor at the time of the accident when journalists at the event received telephone calls from their colleagues – briefing them of the incident whereupon members of the party called for a minute’s silence and brought the rally to a sudden close.
The PDP added, “In its humaneness and civility, our party issued a condolence message to the governor, the Edo ACN, the affected media houses, the Nigeria Union of Journalists, Edo State branch and families of the dead”.
While supporting Governor Oshiomhole’s call for a probe by the police into the cause of the accident, the PDP said that part of the job of that probe panel should include finding out why Governor Oshiomhole drove himself with Hon. Philip Shaibu, a member of Edo State House of Assembly by his side when the accident occurred.
The PDP claimed that “the plausible reason for the ACN government’s distasteful accusations” could have been to divert public attention from the PDP revelation of a multi-billion personal estate which Governor Oshiomhole is constructing in his Iyamho hometown, discredit the Edo PDP and attract undeserved sympathy from the public for the ACN.