Edo crisis can’t intimidate me —Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State on Tuesday said, notwithstanding the crisis rocking his state House of Assembly, he would never be intimidated.

Oshiomhole spoke in an interview with State House correspondents, shortly after attending a meeting of the Council of State presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan.

He boasted that even without state instruments, he confronted the powers that be on the streets of Abuja before he became a governor.

Based on this, he said he was not a man that could be intimidated.

He said, “Now, what is my position in this? Simple! Without a state instrument on the streets of this city of Abuja, we confronted the powers that be. We confronted the people who occupied this Villa from 1999 to 2007. I did along with my colleagues, across the 36 states we did. So, I am not a coward that can be intimidated.

“One thing is that election is coming in 2015 and we have defeated the PDP consistently since 2009 that I assumed office. Every by-election, they lost.

“The last National Assembly election, we defeated them in the whole of Edo South, which is about 51 per cent of the population. We defeated them in Edo North, which is about 33 per cent of the population. We defeated them in Edo Central, which accounts for about 17 per cent of the population.

“In my own election, in all that they boasted that they were going to do, I defeated them in all the 18 local government areas, including the local government of the PDP godfather.

“And so, what they are trying to do now is that having lost the election, having been rejected by the Edo people and knowing that another election is coming, they want to destablise the state and intimidate my person.

“And as you read one Methuselah or Olisa Metuh or by whatever name he is called, he was reported as saying that I am destabilizing Edo State because I want to contest for Vice Presidency. Now, that is standing logic upside down,” he said.

Oshiomhole said if he wanted to contest the vice presidency, he did not need to destabilise the government he currently heads.

He said by his statement, Metuh had let the cat out of the bag: that the PDP was afraid for the rumoured ambition that he wanted to contest the vice presidency.