Some Oshiomhole’s Friends Not Happy With Ize-Iyamu’s Return

By Emmanuel Aziken

Pastor Osaze Ize-Iyamu’s return to the Adams Oshiomhole camp in the Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress, APC may have raised political fortunes of the faction but has also distabilised calculations of some interest groups within the faction.

Ize-Iyamu has automatically become the leading aspirant to be presented by the Oshiomhole faction to contend with Governor Godwin Obaseki. However, his emergence has also distabilised the plans of some other aspirants who had been looking forward to the support of Oshiomhole against Obaseki.

Among the leading contenders for the support of the Oshiomhole faction before the advent of Ize-Iyamu were Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi, Dr. Pius Odubu and General Charles Airhiavbere.

Two of those aspirants, Airhiavbere and Ogiemwonyi were noticeably not very prominent in the reception that took place for Ize-Iyamu on Friday.

“I didn’t see them. If they came maybe it was after we left or something like that,” a journalist present at the reception in Ize-Iyamu’s residence in Benin said.

One source said that they would particularly not be very enthusiastic with the coming of Ize-Iyamu as it would spoil their chances of getting the APC ticket.

It is particularly bad for Airhiavebere who had in recent times raised the bar in his attacks of Governor Obaseki.

Airhiavbere was the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP governorship candidate in 2012 and left the party for the APC apparently sensing that the PDP was wooing Ize-Iyamu who eventually joined the party and got the 2016 ticket.

Though he lost the 2016 ticket of the APC to Obaseki, the former army general had been raising his profile within the Oshiomhole camp with recent attacks against Obaseki apparently in lieu of the 2020 ticket.

However, the return of Ize-Iyamu to the APC may have now put his permutations in disarray as Ize-Iyamu automatically takes the front position among the contenders.

Another contender, Dr. Odubu who was Oshiomhole’s deputy as governor has received Senate confirmation as chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC.

However, talk of a governorship run continues to be generated by his associates.

The focus on Ize-Iyamu is underlined by his political shrewdness and structure across Edo State and it is generally believed that Oshiomhole muzzled federal forces to deny him victory in 2016.

Besides, Ize-Iyamu has been involved in strategizing for all governorship elections in the state since the return of democratic rule.

In 1999 and 2003 he was the campaign coordinator for Lucky Igbinedion, in 2007 he played the same role in the background for Oshiomhole and in 2012 he acted as Oshiomhole’s campaign manager before flying the ticket of the PDP himself in 2016.

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