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PDP demands Oshiomhole's removal over alleged age falsification

2013-04-09 00:00:18

Chairman of the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Dan Orbih, on Monday, called for Governor Adams Oshiomhole's removal over alleged perjury.

Obih, at a press biefing in Benin City claimed the governor swore to an affidavit in May 2012, indicating that he was born April 4, 1952.

Committee of Friends of Governor Oshiomhole last week Thursday, organised a lecture to mark the governor's 60th birthday. This, according to Orbih, portrays Oshiomhole as lying on oath.

But Special Adviser (Media) to the governor, Kassim Afegbua, in a reaction labeled the PDP leaders in the state as jobless.

Orbih said, "The governor said that he was born April 4, 1953. Even last year here, he celebrated 59 years and since he was sworn into office, he has consistently maintained that he was born April 4, 1953.

"If you go to the official website of Edo State, you will see it clearly; it is on Wikipedia, but on Monday (April 4), fellow governors were celebrating him on the pages of newspapers. The President sent a congratulatory message to him at 60, and of course, Edo State PDP seeing what was going on, we had to come out to celebrate him; the first time you see opposition party celebrates someone in power.

"We believed that the governor is 60, but as a responsible party, we discovered that the governor, precisely on May 4, 2012, went to the High Court to swear to an affidavit to the effect that he was born on April 4, 1952.

"You can now appreciate the dilemma we are facing. In the history of the world, no man was born in two separate years; this is perjury. It is labour rascality and we have our children watching, and democracy can never be deepened that way, when leaders lie unperturbed."

He added, "The governor throughout the event never stood up to correct this. This is a challenge to us all and we have no choice than to ask the governor to resign immediately."

Afegbua called on the people of the state to ignore PDP's antics and continue in their support for the administration.

Afegbua said, "They are busybodies. The governor came out and told the whole world that he celebrated his 61st birthday. The PDP people are jobless, if they're not they wouldn't call a press briefing over the governor's age. By the time we got to know it was 60 that was written on the programme it was too late to amend.

"There is no dilemma in all these. The governor did not spend a dime on the event; friends put it up and that was why they called it colloquy."