My government will not play ‘rice and garri’ politics – Oshiomhole

Governor Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday, said
the people of Edo State will no longer be
impressed by the politics of ‘rice and garri’.
The governor’s comments was in reaction to
the alleged diversion of Goodluck Jonathan
campaign rice meant for distribution to the
people of Edo State in the last general
election.
Okharedia Ihimekpen, a PDP chieftain had
alleged that bags of rice released by former
President Goodluck Jonathan to sway votes in
favour of the PDP in the last general election
were not distributed, but were instead,
diverted by a govrnorship aspirant.
While speaking at the palace of the Otaru,
Alhaji Haliru Momoh, Ikelebe 111, during the
2016 Auchi Day celebration, Oshiomhole said
politics of rice and garri was outdated in the
state, noting that the people now prefer the
politics of development.
“The PDP Federal Government awarded the
Auchi erosion contract to one of their own;
in the name of Auchi erosion, they enriched
themselves and abandoned even the tractor
in the erosion site, compounding the erosion
problem. You wrote petitions and those
letters were read and ignored but we thank
God for using me.”
“We thank God that today, in the Auchi
Erosion site, we can now locate two, three
football pitches of Olympic standards in
those areas that erosion had claimed. We
have shown that government needs not
lament, that government can listen and when
contracts are awarded, they are meant to be
done, not to provide avenue for them to
deepen their pockets and use out of it to buy
rice once in two years.”
“I am glad that, Otaru, it will go down in the
records that it was under your reign that God
used us to dualise the Auchi road which your
highness has kindly named Oshiomhole way
and I am humbled. At night, we now can
have street light in spite of the challenges of
power arising from PDP mismanagement of
billions of naira that was voted for power.”
“As you drive here, you see red roofs of
schools that Auchi children can now attend
and this year before the end of my tenure
your Highness, the remaining schools in
Auchi will wear red roofs. We will do that
because your highness, you deserve it and I
will try to discharge only part of my debt
obligations to you.
“Every commitment that I have made, I will
do, including the ones we are already doing.
We will sustain them, we will complete them
before the end of my tenure. My government
will never lament. When others are not
paying salaries, we paid before Christmas
because my task is to make things happen,
not to cry.”