The APC and the PDP in Edo State yesterday engaged in a war of words over the allegation by the APC that Obaseki and his party were recruiting cultists to disrupt the September 19 governorship election.
APC had alleged that those being recruited as Senior Special Assistants (SSAs) and Special Assistants (SAs) by the Obaseki administration would be used to foment trouble during the election.
Publicity Secretary of the APC in the state, Mr. Chris Azebamwan, told reporters at a press conference in Benin City that Obaseki since his emergence as the PDP candidate had embarked on “massive recruitment of thugs and criminals, but this time officially into government.”
He said the people had a cause to worry, adding that “this is because the violence and chaos have already begun.”
But Obaseki, in a reaction by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, said yesterday that the APC chieftains in the state were the ones allegedly sponsoring thugs with a view to undermining the will of the people in the forthcoming governorship election.
Osagie said APC chieftains and their allies had resorted to violence after discovering that they could not win the election in a fair contest.
The PDP also described the accusation of recruiting cultists as frivolous and unsubstantiated, saying it shows the desperation of APC in telling tall tales.
The state Publicity Secretary of PDP, Mr. Chris Nehikhare, said: “We really do not want to respond to the infantile tantrum of APC as it is now becoming obvious to the good people of Edo State, especially the voting public, that APC has finally lost the plot and is grabbing at straws to shield its obvious incompetence. Or how else does one respond to a statement laced with lies, childish innuendos, immature reasoning and thoughts? No wonder the party had been trending on monumental failures.
“To reconcile APC thinking that the Edo State Government is giving out appointments to thugs and cultists to disrupt the elections when Edo people now call and hail the governor as the thug and godfather slayer, is an obvious display of its desperation to try to bully the good people of our state. It is common knowledge that the APC is the party that is populated by known thugs and brigands in the many factions that exist within it.”
