Oshiomole denies content of wikileaks cables

Governor Adams Oshiomhole has denied accusing Jonathan of voting four times in the 2007 election.

An exclusive from 234next news paper had reported at the weekend that Oshiomhole accused the President of voting four times at the 2007 polls.

But in a reaction yesterday, the state government said: “Our attention has been drawn to the story published yesterday (by a) newspaper, which falsely alluded that the Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole told some United States (U.S.) diplomats in December 2008 that President Goodluck Jonathan voted four times as Vice President in the April 2007 election.

“We are completely at a loss how the newspaper came to that conclusion which is attributed to the highly controversial whistleblower site, Wikileaks and said to have been made exclusively to it. We wish to say that at no time did the governor ever make such a weighty allegation against President Goodluck Jonathan.

“It is obvious that there was a clear mix-up in the story as the person in reference is a former military vice president, whose name was tendered in court as voting four times during the epic case to regain the mandate popularly given to Oshiomhole by the Edo people and not President Goodluck Jonathan.

“In addition, what was tendered in court was the electoral register bearing the names of voters in Edo State which had nothing to do with Jonathan who voted in Bayelsa.

“Why we still ponder over the import of the strange linkage to the President, we are particularly moved not to suspect that the newspaper is opening its flanks to the whims of mischief makers or some unscrupulous elements who deliberately wish to drive a wedge between Jonathan and Oshiomhole.

“We wish to place on record that there was nowhere either in the tendered court documents or the brief with the U.S. diplomats where President Jonathan’s name featured as voting four times. We want to plead that the media should endeavour to verify their facts painstakingly before going to press in order to avoid causing unnecessary disaffection.”

Meanwhile, former Director-General of the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), Prof. Omo Omoruyi, has called on Oshiomhole to back Jonathan’s presidential bid.

He said the support is imperative “for us to survive in this federation.”

Also, a PDP gubernatorial aspirant in the state, Ken Imansuagbon, has called on all the party’s candidates in next month’s general elections to close ranks and ensure that Jonathan returns as President and the party also wins the various elective positions in the state.
He stated this over the weekend when he had a breakfast meeting with all the party’s candidates and made various financial donations to assist their course. Imansuangbon, who used the opportunity to inform the PDP candidates of their support during the state governorship election, further stated: “We need a change and you are the candidates for that change. I count on your support to get the party nomination in 2012 and as you are doing this, we all will be victorious.”

In a chat with journalists in his house yesterday, Omoruyi advised Oshiomhole, who he described as a “very nice man” not to drag the people of the state into the politics of the South West, who are predominantly Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) members. “Edo State is not part of Yoruba region where you have all the Yoruba as a force. There is nothing they cannot get in this country no matter the party they belong to. They dominate the banks, they dominate the judiciary, where do we stand, no where.”
He continued: “I believe that Jonathan’s coming is an opportunity for us to demonstrate that we will get out our votes for him and that we are not following the ACN South West strategy of stalemate. And therefore, our governor, a nice man should try to distance himself from that stalemate strategy because it will not do us any good,” Omoruyi said.