Speaker of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) faction of Edo State House of Assembly, FESTUS EBEA, speaks with Special Correspondent, TITUS OISE, on the crisis in the House, accusing the governor, Adams Oshiomhole, of instigating and reaping from the impasse.
Original chamber among contending camps
I should be asking you this question. It is you who is in Edo State; where do you have the House of Assembly? The House of Assembly is domiciled in Ring Road, where we call the King’s Square.
Destination of resolutions
We send them to the appropriate quarters. Any one that has to do with the governor, we send it to him. Also, any one that has to do with individuals or private persons will be sent to him. What is important is that the onus does not lie on us to implement the resolutions. But when the time comes, Edo people will enforce those resolutions.
Governor Adams Oshiomhole reaching out for peaceful resolution of the crisis
You know the governor cannot reach out to us. He is not willing to reach out to us. The conspiracy that took the House of Assembly to this level took place at the Government House, executed by his instruction and paid for by him. He is the major beneficiary of the division in the House. He is the beneficiary of the crisis and he will not want it to end. If the governor wants it ended, he knows what to do; but he doesn’t want to do it because he is enjoying it.
He has never reached out to anybody. Rather, he tried to call individuals to offer them money. He is not a statesman. But he keeps telling people that they want to impeach him. He has never reached out to anybody for the resolution of these crises.
Faction absent in passage of the 2015 Edo State budget
You cannot build something on nothing. For the fact that the All Progressives Congress (APC) people are sitting outside the main chamber of the House of Assembly, anything done is null and void. To go ahead with meetings in the name of passing a budget to please your political party is just a meeting.
Possibility for the governor to break faction’s ranks
The nine of us today in PDP are very resolute. If it has to do with money, nobody will last to the next day in PDP. He has lied to the generality of Edo people that we collected money. We challenged him to come forward to prove it. We even asked him to come to the palace for an oath. But he refused.
The way forward
We had said before we went on recess in August that we should return to status quo. But they refused and he went to America, boasting that he had 15 lawmakers intact, and that we collected money, and that the ones who refused to collect money for him to be impeached were the 15 APC whom he boasted were with him in the United States of America (U.S.).
Relationship with other APC legislators
Apart from the legitimate business we are all elected to do, there is no relationship. In a nutshell, we are no longer friends. If they really know what they are doing, they will seek peace. Because they know that what they are doing is being propelled by the power of money flowing from the governor, they will be ashamed to see us discuss.
Message to aggrieved Edo people
I know Edo people are not happy that the man they all voted for has betrayed the confidence that was reposed in him. And the man has not considered how the electorate feels over the entire problem because he is trying very hard to use money to subvert the truth. But they must challenge him to ask him how come he quickly took side with the APC legislators, if he was not the architect of the whole problem?
 faction of Edo State House of Assembly, FESTUS EBEA, speaks with Special Correspondent, TITUS OISE, on the crisis in the House, accusing the governor, Adams Oshiomhole, of instigating and reaping from the impasse.){kind=link}