Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State on Monday alleged that some members of the State House of Assembly who recently defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) got N50 million each to sell out.
Oshiomhole who disclosed this when he addressed different sets of youths on peaceful protest to the Government House however said government was undisturbed with the shenanigans of the defected lawmakers.
He said “I thank you for recognizing that we all went round to campaign for these people who have decided to sell their mandate for naira and kobo. What is sickening is that they are young men who should be anxious to break from the past.
“However because they believed they do not have any chance of being re-elected in February next year, because they have either done two terms or because of their poor performance, they know their constituency will not re-nominate them, they now decided to benefit from the desperation in different parts of the country to sell their mandate for N50 million each, collect advance payment of thirty-five million. When I read this in the newspapers, initially, I didn’t believe. But going round, people tell me they are buying new vehicles, others are rebuilding their hotels. Suddenly money is flowing.
“Obviously, I think it is important that if democracy is going to survive, each promise must be kept because in the last election, I had to go and do a television advert when the PDP people said this election is not Oshiomhole’s election, therefore vote for individual candidates, I went on television to say that a vote for these House of Assembly members is a vote for Adams Oshiomhole.
“I had to do that because Edo people were not going to accept some of these people and I had to remind them that if they do not vote for them they would create problems for me. Now the vultures have come and they are offering money and people are collecting money and making all kind of excuses.”
The Governor declared “as far as I am concerned, there is no cause for alarm. A lot of these people cannot win election on their own merit in their own booth. They were voted for as ACN with the broom. If you were vote for as ACN, with the broom, how can you now go and replace it with an umbrella that is torn and abandoned.
“People with little mind will think that they can sell their constituents with thirty-five million or fifty million depending on when they will get their balance and with time more truth will be revealed and when it is revealed a lot of these people will not be able to walk through the streets of Oredo and Ikpoba Okha.
“Those who voted some of them do not have a thousand naira but those they have voted for have chosen to sell it for a huge sum. As far as I am concerned, we are stronger. Edo politics will be cleaned up and the cleaning is already here”, he said.
Oshiomhole said government is committed to doing those things that will bring joy to the people, adding “we are committed to building more schools and roads”.
Earlier, the spokesman of the group, Mr. Emma Yamah said they were in Government House to assure the governor of their support and decried the four legislators who rode on the governors back to get elected but only to now defect to the opposition party.
He said the youths were going to demand their mandates from the lawmakers who defected saying the mandate did not belong to the defected lawmakers, but to the people.
