Jonathan flays Oshiomhole over vote buying allegation

• APC chair in ‘fragile psychological state’, he says
Former President Goodluck Jonathan has tackled the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, for alleging that vote buying was introduced by his administration.

In a statement yesterday in Abuja by his media adviser, Ikechukwu Eze, Jonathan said Oshiomhole’s remark was the direct product of his “fragile psychological state.”

The erstwhile Edo State governor had during a live television programme said: “President Jonathan started this massive vote buying in Nigeria and the media must play back and do proper interview and investigation to discover the origin of the menace.”

But the Otuoke, Bayelsa-born ex-leader, in his communication entitled, Oshiomhole: The burden of blame game and tumultuous leadership, maintained that “Mr. Oshiomhole, who is currently operating under tremendous stress in a bid to steady the already floundering ship of his administration as the new leader of his party, may have got himself entangled in a voyage of tactless desperation.”

He went on: “Oshiomhole’s recent flip flops where he praised Governor Samuel Ortom (of Benue State) and Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso one day, only to denounce them the very next day, are enough evidence of his fragile psychological state.”

“Not only is he content on squabbling with members of the opposition, we also note the self-destructive tendencies of Oshiomhole, who is locked in a feud with members of his own party, including the Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, and a host of APC governors. It appears that Mr. Oshiomhole’s psychological strain may have reached a boiling point.”

The statement pointed out that the “shameful vote buying development in our democratic experience became very glaring during the 2016 gubernatorial elections in Edo State.

“It is therefore disingenuous for any politician or group to link the former president with the anomaly, no matter how they want to stretch the now-failing blame game.”

It wondered why the one-time president of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) after praising Jonathan for conducting free and fair elections would turn around to condemn him now.

The statement reads in part: “One of those who gave the former president a clean bill of health was Mr. Oshiomhole himself, who on July 16, 2012, said: “What the Edo election has confirmed is that when the President and Commander-in-Chief puts the country first and he conducts himself as a statesman not just as a party leader, credible elections are possible.

“When you juxtapose the above statement with Mr. Oshiomhole’s current statement, it becomes obvious that the APC chairman is suffering from multiple personality syndrome and has a Jekyll and Hyde schizophrenia.”