Oshiomhole Not A Dictator, He Gives Me A Free Hand — Okpebholo
He also dismissed claims that certain godfathers handpicked him to be remote-controlled as Edo governor.
Edo State Governor, Monday Okpebholo, says Edo North Senator Adams Oshiomhole is not a dictator as some of his detractors have described him. Rather, the governor said, the federal lawmaker allows to handle the affairs of the state without interference.
“Even the man that they say is a dictator is not dictating anything; I am seeing a different Oshiomhole. Oshiomhole is giving me a free hand,” Okpebholo said on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme on Thursday.
“Whenever I want to talk to him, he will say: ‘My son, I know how you feel, just do it your way’. But I will say: ‘Sir, I won’t do it in my way, please advise me,’ and he advises me, and most of the advice comes out to be something positive. You cannot be an island; you have to carry everybody along.”
Okpebholo also dismissed claims that certain godfathers handpicked him to be remote-controlled as the number one citizen of the South-South state.
According to him, Almighty God only used certain persons to support his governorship ambition and get him into office.
“Can you even point out one godfather who was pushing me?” the governor queried when asked about his political lineage on the programme.
“God was using people to help me, to support me, to get to where I am today.”
Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, defeated Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party (LP), among others, to win the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo.
He was later sworn in as governor on November 12, 2024, after the eight-year reign of Godwin Obaseki of the PDP.
Okpebholo’s walk to the Dennis Osadebe Government House was not all rosy. Significantly, Okpebholo, who was formerly Edo Central Senator, leveraged some influence in his senatorial district and joined forces with Oshiomhole to defeat Ighodalo, the anointed candidate of the then-outgoing governor.
Okpebholo’s victory could also be attributed to his alliance with Dennis Idahosa, his then running mate who was a federal lawmaker, and Obaseki’s estranged former deputy, Philip Shaibu.
The APC lost power in the state in 2020 after Obaseki defected from the party to the PDP in the heat of an intra-party squabble and fallout with his predecessor, Oshiomhole.
After he was denied the APC governorship ticket, Obaseki joined the PDP and clinched the ticket to defeat APC’s Osagie Ize-Iyamu to seal his second term, which ended on November 12, 2024.
Obaseki campaigned strongly for Ighodalo, while Oshiomhole was a focal figure for Okpebholo’s campaign, attending rallies and interviews on behalf of the APC candidate.
