An aide to the Comrade Oshiomhole , Victor Oshioke, who hails from Apana, has debunked the allegations that the attack on Obaseki’s convoy by thugs was sponsored by Adams Oshiomhole.
Oshioke in his reaction alleged that the “gunmen” were sponsored by the deputy governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu, and that the vehicle they used was in the convoy of the governor.
Oshioke told newsmen, last night: “The attackers were actually in the governor’s convoy, they drove ahead of the governor’s convoy from Ayoguiri and when they got to the village they started by destroying the billboards I mounted, the one mounted by Chief Lucky James, that of Nick Sedi and that of Jerome Adegboyega.
“They destroyed a vehicle belonging to Wilson Idaewor. People have just started coming back to the community and we are going to make a formal complaint to the police.
“We ensured that our people did not retaliate so that it will not be reported that Obaseki was attacked in Oshiomhole’s ward, which we know was their intention.”
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However, Obaseki’s Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, claimed the said incident occurred in Ward 10, Apana, where Oshiomhole hails from and that the thugs were allegedly sponsored by Oshiomole.
He also noted that they were reportedly dislodged by a combined team of security personnel and vigilante groups, who repelled their gunshots.
Osagie said the state’s Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu, gave them a hot chase.
According to Osagie, the pandemonium caused by the gunshots and the hurling of stones stalled the governor’s convoy temporarily before the Ward-to-Ward campaign train berthed at Adams Oshiomhole ’s corridor at Apana Market Square in Ward 10.
Meanwhile, the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, yesterday, said it would deploy no fewer than 20,000 ad-hoc staff for the conduct of the September 19 governorship poll in Edo State.
Prof. Bolade Eyinla, the Technical Advisor to INEC Chairman, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, said this during a virtual meeting with journalists in Edo organised by the International Press Council, IPC, on the role of journalists in Edo election.