Oshiomhole, Adoke in Ugly Confrontation over Oyerinde’s Murder

Governor Adams Oshiomhole

By Muhammad Bello

The alleged procedural flaws in the manner in which the case of the murder of Olaitan Oyerinde, former the Private Principal Secretary to Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, is being handled, Tuesday led to a hot exchange of words between the governor and the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Muhammad Bello Adoke.

Both men threw barbs at each other inside the council chambers, venue of Tuesday National Council of States meeting shortly before the arrival of President Goodluck Jonathan.

It took the timely intervention of Oshiomhole’s colleagues from Delta and Gombe States, Governors Emmanuel Uduaghan and Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo as well as the Chief of Staff to the president, Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, to avert fisticuffs between the two personalities.

It all started when Oshiomhole moved around the chamber exchanging pleasantries with participants at the meeting.
After greeting Adoke, the AGF started pointing fingers at the governor, who became enraged and started to raise his voice, pointing back at him.

This incident quickly attracted the trio of Dankwambo, Uduaghan and Oghiadomhe, who stood between the two fuming persons.

After the meeting, Oshiomhole reluctantly told State House correspondents his own version of the story.

He stated that contrary to Adoke’s assertion that Edo State Attorney-General has nothing to do with the receipt of the record of the investigation conducted by the Deputy Inspector General of Police, the offence was committed in a state and was thus under the purview of the state Attorney-General.

Visibly angry, the governor expressed his displeasure about how some public officials denigrate his status as a chief executive, insisting that he had complained that the matter should have, from the beginning, been referred to the Edo State Director of Public Prosecution (DPP) and not the Nigeria Police in Abuja.