By Olayinka Ajayi

Edo State-born business magnate, and philanthropist, Captain Hosa Okunbo, told Vanguard that after he went on his knees to beg Governor Godwin Obaseki not to fight the former governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Obaseki said he would be collateral damage if he does not stay away from the matter.

Okunbo said this in an interview with Vanguard, where he explained that he had stepped in when the fight started, urging the governor “nip it in the bud for the sake of everybody”.

Hosa said: “I was in his house for three hours. I knelt down, begging. I said for the sake of the state, I don’t want this animosity to continue; whatever it takes, please close it out.

“That same night, when I got home, I got a call from a common friend in Lagos, who told me ‘Godwin said you should stay out of this matter, otherwise, you might be collateral damage’.

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“I said, collateral damage? Me? Should I ask him? The person said i should ask him. The next morning I called him. I said Ogierebor (that is what I call him), this is what this guy told me.

“He said ‘yes, it is fight to finish oh. You better stay away so that you will not be caught up in the middle.

“I said thank you, but I won’t relent. I reached out to elders who were more powerful than myself; that we should not have a state where there are no elders.”

On how the crisis started, Hosa Okunbo said: “When he started fighting the political class, I told him when he came to my house, ‘GO, please if you keep fighting these guys, they have a boss who is Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and very soon, you and Adams will quarrel’.

“He said God forbid. That instead of him and Adams to quarrel, he would resign from being governor.

“Not long after Adams became Chairman of APC; the people whom Obaseki was fighting found solace in Abuja and they came to seek help from him.

“I was watching and comrade started helping some of them through his position. And the quarrel started.

“He became angry with Comrade and complained that he was helping people that were fighting him in the state.

“Then it came to their primaries and the full-blown quarrel started. I went to him and tried settling them. I went once, and the second time I said, ‘GO my brother, your position today is Governor and Comrade is Chairman of APC.

“‘I don’t think there is anything both of you will sit in front of the President and ask for our state that we would not get. Please, this quarrel should never happen’.”

That was when he spent three hours begging Obaseki and even knelt down.

VANGUARD