Edo 2024: Oba of Benin Refutes Oshiomhole’s Claim on Obaseki, Setting Record Straight During Akpabio and APC Leaders’ Palace Visit

It was a bad outing for Senator Adams Oshiomhole who, on Monday, received perhaps the greatest embarrassment of his life when he led the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Edo State governor-elect Senator Monday Okpebholo, and chieftains of the All-Progressives Congress, APC, to the palace of the Oba of Benin, Ewuare 11 to present to him the in-coming governor.

In his usual manner of playing to the gallery, and apparently gloating over the political misfortune of his successor, Oshiomhole, had started by apologising to His Royal Majesty, Oba Ewuare II, for stubbornly sticking to his choice of Governor Godwin Obaseki in 2016 against his advice.

However, the visibly uncomfortable Oba stopped him in his tracks to debunk his claim.

The drama started after Akpabio had extolled the leadership qualities of the Oba and passed the microphone to Oshiomhole.

Senator Oshiomhole insisted on being on his knees ostensibly as mark of his remorse for turning deaf ears to his purported advice not to back Obaseki as his successor.

Oba Ewuare II, who is known for his bluntness, interrupted the former governor, stating unequivocally that he never advised against the choice of Obaseki.

Addressing Benin Throne, Oshiomhole had said: “Your Royal Majesty, I will like to remain on my knees, first to apologise to Your Majesty for my poor judgement, when, in spite of your clear advice to the contrary, I stubbornly, and wrongly supported a man, who I thought, being a Benin man, would respect the tradition, the custom, the heritage, the brilliance and creativity and the respect for tradition by any logical man that claims a Benin man, when I presented Obaseki to you, against your advice.”

It was at this point that the Oba stopped him, and Oshiomhole got up for him to speak.

Oba Ewuare 11 said he had promised himself that he would not say much about the happenings around, and that he had been restraining himself to keep to that promise.

According to him, “When you said it was against my advice, that is why I thought I should explain. When you introduced Obaseki as your successor, I didn’t say anything. You know, I said I won’t say so much here. I told them (pointing in the direction of palace functionaries). And I will try to restrain myself. Because anything that will bring … with my son, with Akpakomisa (Okpebholo’s appellation), I want to avoid it.

“But I have to correct it when you said, ‘against my advice’. I never said anything against Obaseki when you brought him. You will recall, this one (the Oba pointed at someone, and Oshiomhole turned to look at the person, who happened to be the former chairman of the Edo State Board of Internal Revenue, Oseni Elemah, his bosom friend) is your witness when you brought him to introduce him to me. You talked about Odubu; (Oshiomhole’s erstwhile deputy) that they voted against my father’s choice”.

All the visibly discomfited Oshiomhole could say was, “I apologise, for that, I apologise”.

Recall that all through the electioneering, the alleged acrimony between the Benin Palace and Governor Obaseki was one of the issues the APC amplified at rallies to whip up sentiments against the governor and his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The APC tried to portray Obaseki as an enemy of the Oba, especially because of their face-off over custody of returned Benin artefacts from museums across the world, and the governor’s perceived attempt to balkanise Benin Kingdom by enthroning other traditional rulers in Edo South senatorial district, the domain of Oba Ewuare 11.