Former Edo State Governor and Senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, has faulted ex-Vice President Atiku Abubakar for criticising President Bola Tinubu’s recent condolence visit to Plateau State.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, Oshiomhole accused Atiku of turning a solemn occasion into a political debate.
“I have sympathy for former Vice President Atiku for thinking that even in matters of death and honouring the dead, politics must be involved,” Oshiomhole said. “As an elder statesman, at his age, he should know better.”
Atiku, the Peoples Democratic Party’s 2023 presidential candidate, had condemned Tinubu for attending the funeral of Mama Lydia Yilwatda, mother of APC National Chairman Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, instead of visiting victims of insecurity in the state.
But Oshiomhole defended the president’s action, insisting there was nothing insensitive about paying respects.
“Can anyone accuse the President of being insensitive just because he attended a condolence visit? Even if he went to pay his last respects to the mother of the APC Chairman, what is wrong with that? This was even on a weekend,” he said.
The senator also recalled his days as labour leader during Atiku’s tenure as Vice President, accusing him of selective memory.
“I was practically a one-man opposition when Atiku was Vice President, and they forget in a hurry what they did in office,” Oshiomhole remarked.
He urged Atiku to rise above political bitterness, warning against trivialising issues of national empathy.
“In politics, everything is seen through partisan eyes, but I think he should be more than that,” he added.
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