Former Edo governor Adams Oshiomhole has branded his successor’s wife, Betsy Obaseki, as a barren woman incapable of loving children, citing her refusal to adopt despite being in her sixties.
Mr. Oshiomhole claimed that Mrs. Obaseki lacked the moral capacity to criticise APC candidate Monday Okpebholo for not having a wife, citing her “childlessness.”
Mrs. Obaseki, wife of PDP governor Godwin Obaseki, had earlier mocked APC’s Okpebholo for not having a wife to discredit him as the campaign for the November gubernatorial election heated up, according to Mr. Oshiomhole.
The senator expressed surprise at Mrs. Obaseki’s words.
“I was shocked yesterday to see Mrs. Obaseki, the first lady, saying our (APC) candidate has no wife. She is the most. I’m sorry she had to say that because here is a woman who has no child,” Mr. Oshiomhole told reporters. “Between him(sic) and Obaseki, they are childless.”
The senator further accused the First Lady of being incapable of loving children because she and her husband refused to adopt children from an orphanage after being married for many years.
Mr. Oshiomhole stated that he had no objections to families who did not have children but that couples who sincerely loved children would have chosen adoption as an alternative.
“They are not even ready to adopt. I don’t blame anyone if you don’t have a child, but people who have love for children go to motherless homes and adopt children. They have not adopted; they are both in their sixties,” Mr. Oshiomhole stressed.
“I don’t know whether it’s a contract or whatever it is, but they have no child,” he stated.
Mr. Oshiomhole used the opportunity to portray the APC flag bearer as a man who loved children and invested in their education.
According to him, Mr. Okpebholo’s first child is a lawyer, and his second is a doctor.
“Now, our candidate, not only does he have children, he has invested in the education of those children such that you watch them on live television, covered by your media stations, where the first one that spoke is a lawyer, the second one is a medical doctor, and they addressed the crowd in Edo South, in Edo Central, and in the North, and their mother was there,” the senator bragged.
Oshiomhole and Obaseki were previous political allies, and the former anointed the latter to succeed him in 2016.
They both fell out, and Mr. Obaseki defected from the APC to the PDP in 2020, when he was re-elected for a second term.
