APC, PDP leaders bicker over Edo violence

The leader of the All Progressives Congress in the Owan East Local Government Area of Edo State, Pally Iriase, has accused the Peoples Democratic Party of scuttling his party’s ward to ward rally which started on Monday.

Iriase on Tuesday, August 25, 2020, accused the Local Government Chairman, Andrew Osigwe, of leading thugs to destroy a campaign podium, chairs and canopies meant for an APC rally at Ihievbie community.

Iriase, a former Deputy Whip of the House of Representatives, claimed that hoodlums, who carried out the act, acted at the behest of the Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki.

When contacted, Osigwe said, “My governor and I are law-abiding citizens. We will never do such a thing; even when they came to Afuze and they did their local government rally, they did not apply for the stadium, yet I allowed them to use it. Why didn’t I send people to disrupt the event?

“If they have an internal crisis in their party, they should sort it out. They should not involve Godwin Obaseki and I. When they came, they did not apply for the field they used, but I only told them to pay N5,000 for its use.

“I don’t know anything about the destruction that took place on their campaign ground. I am not even there right now. I will again implore them not to connect me to anything that is violent.”