One rumour that has refused to go away in Edo State is that the governor, Adams Oshiomhole, will decamp from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the near future.

In small circles of discussions in the state capital Benin City, not a few (some of them politicians) believe that Nigerian politics, being what it is, could throw up a situation that would see the ‘Comrade Governor’ make the switch across parties.

Particularly, some cite a perceived need of Oshiomhole to seek a higher federal political position on a larger political platform which they believe the PDP would provide.

Others think that to avoid a politically-motivated vendetta against him after his tenure, especially if the PDP retains control of the presidency and wins majority control of the state’s House of Assembly in February 2015, Oshiomhole would have to jump ship from the APC.

However, a frontline Benin City-based lawyer and top official of APC in Edo State, Christopher Eguasa, has laughed off the rumours, insisting that Oshiomhole is and would remain a loyal party man of the APC.

Eguasa, in an interview granted to News Express in his law chambers recently in Benin City, said: “The issue of decamping from a party to another is in the heart of the individual; it is a constitutional right. But Oshiomhole is not that kind of person (to decamp). He contested the governorship election (in Edo State in 2007) and he won convincingly. Let us not be quick to forget that. If he can do that in Edo State, he can also do so at the federal level. Oshiomhole is one name that cuts across the shores of this country.”

During the last presidential election in 2011, there was a widespread perception that Governor Oshiomhole did not actively campaign for his party’s (then Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN) candidate, deferring to the general wishes of the majority in the state to vote for Goodluck Jonathan, being from the same South-South geo-political region as the Edo people.

Eguasa however declared that this time Oshiomhole would be fully involved in the push to win the state for the APC presidential candidate, retired General Muhammadu Buhari.

“The Comrade Governor has always been a party man and he is still a party man. Yes (he will be campaigning actively for Buhari),” Eguasa affirmed.

According to him, “Jonathan of today is not the one of yesterday. Today he acts as the President of a political party and not the country. It’s painful.”

•Photo shows Edo APC chieftain, Barrister Eguasa.

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