The Obaseki/Shaibu Movement (OSM) has rejected the Senate President Ahmad Lawan-led All Progressives Congress (APC) National Reconciliation Committee constituted by the National Working Committee (NWC) to resolve the lingering crisis in the Edo State chapter of the ruling party.
The support group, which is working for the re-election of Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu come next year, made its position known in a statement by the convener, Mr. Damian Lawani, yesterday in Benin City.
It protested the constitution of the panel, alleging that some of the members were interested parties. The group, therefore, questioned their neutrality to discharge the great task.
Lawani said: “We categorically reject the National Reconciliation Committee constituted by the APC NWC because we have seen the duplicity in the act. The Senate President, Ahmad Lawan, and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Ahmed Wase, are members of the newly announced committee and their inclusion is not only pregnant with meaning but also symptomatic of the intent of the National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to continue the lingering fight against his political enemies.
“Comrade Oshiomhole, Nigerians will recall, enlisted the services of Senator Lawan and Hon. Wase to carry out his plan of taking over the powers of the Edo State House of Assembly until they were stopped in their tracks by the Federal High Court sitting in Port Harcourt. The National Assembly was thereby restrained from continuing in their perfidious ambition, which was to muzzle Governor Godwin Obaseki. The court thwarted this move and now Comrade Oshiomhole wants to make a mockery of the law by using the National Reconciliation Committee to actuate his plans through the backdoor.”
He said the action of NWC on the matter “goes to show that the National Chairman is still out to hound his political enemies by conscripting his allies to head the committee. We are not convinced that the committee will be fair to all parties in the matter, especially as it relates to Edo State, which we know is the main target of the National Chairman.”
The group alleged: “This is because we suspect that the committee would be presented with a script they would come and act out on the Edo crisis.
“To that extent, we wholesomely reject the committee and request that a committee that will do justice to the matter without prejudice be constituted.