Ahead of the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, former All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, is optimistic of his party’s victory in the poll.
Oshiomhole, who visited President Bola Tinubu at the State House in Abuja on Friday, said his party’s candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, will defeat Mr Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the ballot.
“Why should we even bother about shortcuts? Any day, we would defeat Asue Ighodalo,” he told journalists about his party’s chances in the polls.
He also commented on the crisis rocking his state’s PDP chapter, claiming without evidence that all party members in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State decamped to the APC.
According to the senator representing Edo North in the National Assembly, he was in the Presidential Villa to keep him abreast with the APC’s campaign activities in his state.
“We went with the candidate and the running mate to give the President. He is the leader of the party to give him an update on the campaigns going on and what we are doing and the fact that we are harvesting more and more people every day.
“I’m surprised that rather than speculating about who will face what, you are not a witness to the fact that the entire PDP in Egor, a month ago, all the wards, decamped to APC. Just last week in my local government, the remaining remnants of PDP decamped to the APC,” he stated.
The former Edo governor also denied insinuations that the crisis that emanated from the invalidation of the PDP governorship primary was orchestrated by the APC.
He explained that the issue was an internal crisis of the ruling party, which had nothing to do with the APC. The lawmaker also dismissed claims that the PDP primary election crisis was orchestrated by his party.
“So what power do I have? How can we, a non-state group, have power to influence a seasoned politician to move against themselves?
“So this is purely PDP intra-party, and I think the lesson is very clear, mainly that parties must be encouraged to obey the laws that regulate the conduct of primaries, and that rules are meant to be obeyed if you formulate your constitution.
“It is the base of the contract between party members. Now, the Electoral Act is meant to ensure that everybody played the game within the you know, within the rules, so we have nothing to do it,” Oshiomhole added.
Peoplesmind
