VIDEO: Gov. Oshiomhole Escapes Being Lynched at National Dialogue Committee Meeting in Benin City

The meeting of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue (PACND) with the stakeholders in the South-South ended in confusion, following an outburst from participants against a remark made by Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
Pius Nsogho reported that Governor Oshiomhole was whisked away from the venue of PACND by his security when the situation became tense.
Later Edo State Government has released the official press statement. It blamed alleged PDP ‘thugs’ for disrupting the proceedings of the PACND in Benin City, when they stopped Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State and others from making contributions to the ongoing talks.
Col Tony Nyiam (rtd), a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee, is believed to be the arrowhead of the disruption as he shouted down the Governor while making his contribution.
The Governor who took the stage to make his contribution shortly after the Isoko Ethnic group had made their contribution said he objected to spending huge public funds on a wasteful venture saying, during the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo, money was spent on similar conference and at the end, nothing came out of that conference.
But as soon as Governor Oshiomhole made this statement, committee member, Col Nyiam jumped on his feet and would perhaps have lunged at the Governor were he close to him. He was restrained by other members who were taken aback by his action.
Even while the Governor was still making his contribution, Nyiam started screaming at the top of his voice for the Governor to shut up and sit down. He was then joined in by the PDP ‘thugs’ who disrupted the whole proceedings and many scampered for safety as a result of the unruliness of the committee member and thugs.
The Governor who insisted on concluding his remarks however yielded the floor when the thugs were getting violent.
After leaving the PACND meeting Gov. Oshiomhole lamented that fifty-three years after independence, "Nigerians still prefer to look at themselves from their ethnic origin rather than being Nigerians, saying, “for me, I am just a Nigerian".
“Nigeria does need a serious reflection about how to return to those core values that made Nigeria work before. Those healthy competition between the governments, visit the whole question of attitude and unless that changes, I do not see how any dialogue can work”, he said.
Earlier the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee on National Dialogue/Conference, Senator Femi Okurounmu said they were in Benin as part of their to the six geo political zones to get their input as regards the content of the agenda, the duration, choice of delegation and legal framework.

Posted in: Politics