Jide Orintunsin, Abuja

 

THE Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mr. Yekini Nabena, has said the electorate have decided for the party’s governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

Nabena, in a statement on Sunday in Abuja, said: “The APC is deeply humbled by the massive turnout and support the good people of Edo State extended to the party’s National Campaign Council during last Saturday’s campaign launch of our governorship candidate, Pastor Ize-Iyamu and running mate Gani Audu ahead of the September 19 governorship poll.

“The electorate have sent a message on the governance direction of the state – a progressive one which puts the people’s welfare and interests first. As a party, we don’t take this overwhelming support for granted.

“The party thanks the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II, for the warm reception and hospitality His Royal Highness extended to our party leaders during the courtesy visit to the palace. We pray the Almighty God continues to grant the revered Oba of Benin the wisdom to guide the good people of Edo State on the right and progressive path.

“President Muhammadu Buhari in endorsing the APC governorship candidate, Pastor Ize-Iyamu, urged the APC leadership to prosecute and win the governorship election using legal and constitutional means by avoiding the pitfalls that affected the party’s victories in Rivers, Zamfara and Bayelsa states during and after the 2019 general election. This we intend to achieve with the new and positive party disposition under the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led APC Caretaker Committee.

Read Also: APC stalwart abducted in A’Ibom

“We congratulate the Governor Mai Mala Buni-led APC Caretaker Committee for successfully bringing together party ranks as a repositioned, united and happy family in total support of the APC governorship candidate. Going forward, the task before us is to collectively showcase our evident people-focused development records to the good people of Edo State.”

“As articulated in Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s six-point ‘SIMPLE agenda’ that stands for Security, Infrastructural Development, Manpower Development, Public Private Partnership, Leadership and Employment Creation, the APC campaign will be issue-based and devoid of the do-or-die rhetoric and scare tactics the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is deploying ahead of the September 19 governorship election.

“We stand with the good people of Edo State that votes must count and the will of the electorate must prevail.”

 

By Bisi Olaniyi, Benin

Youths from the 18 local governments have said they are ready to defend their votes.

The youth, under the aegis of Edo Youths for Progress, said they would ensure that an unpopular candidate was not foisted on the people.

Speaking with reporters in Benin, through their Secretary, Osahon Isibor, the youth urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), police and other security agencies to ensure the conduct of a free, fair and credible election.

Read Also: Ripples in Edo House of Assembly

They said: “We are worried over the rising incidence of violence in Edo State, ahead of the September 19 governorship election.

“Edo people are wiser. We want to remind the people planning to unleash mayhem that nobody has a monopoly of violence.

“We will come out en masse to vote for the candidate of our choice on September 19, and we will do everything to protect our votes.”

The youth called for a peaceful, free and fair election.

By Bisi Olaniyi, Benin

The Special Adviser to Edo Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, has said a renewed mandate for Governor Godwin Obaseki and his ‘Make Edo Great Again’ (MEGA) manifesto will bolster the economy to tackle the vagaries of the post-COVID-19 era.

Osagie said: “Governor Obaseki has designed socio-economic policies, which are contained in his MEGA manifesto that will address the challenges arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Our manifesto is alive to the challenges of today and the future, with policies and programmes tailored to reflate and stimulate the economy, unlike the SIMPLE agenda manifesto of the opposition party, whose ownership is still a controversy and bereft of strategies to tackle the challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.

“In our manifesto, a section is devoted to post-COVID-19 economy. In that section, the governor said he will run a post-COVID-19 economy after the election. This will task our resolve to restart the economy, even as we push for an economic stimulus package to resuscitate businesses, sustain livelihood and hold the economy together.

Read Also: Obaseki: power belongs to the people

“Our focus will be on supporting businesses with low interest loan facilities, strengthening the productive sector by prioritising the Edo Production Hub Initiative and pursuing more impactful policies in the agricultural sector.”

He said the reforms in the Edo State College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and Edo State College of Education would be sustained, while sourcing more partners to pull in resources to groom youths for global competitiveness.

The media aide said: “We will leverage on our assets at the Edo Innovation Hub to migrate more of our people, especially workers and businesses to the digital space, because much of human activities will be done online, going forward.

“We will increase investment in the health care system, while ensuring the statewide roll out of a responsive and well-managed health insurance scheme.”

He claimed that Edo people would not vote for a candidate that was still dwelling on developmental issues of 2016, the year the SIMPLE agenda was written.

By Bisi Olaniyi, Benin

The Chairman of Media Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Prince John Mayaki, has said members of the family of the party’s standard-bearer, Pastor Osagie  Ize-Iyamu, never endorsed Governor Godwin Obaseki.

He said it was sad that some media organisations (excluding The Nation), abandoned ethics, assiduity and professionalism, and lent themselves to sentimentalism and hearsay.

Mayaki noted that the media houses exposed themselves to the whims and caprices of odious and discordant fabrications.

Said he: “The media have generally conducted themselves as they should – sentinels of truth – in the campaign leading to the September 19 governorship election. To a large extent, they still do, but a chain is only as strong as its weakest link.

“News agencies have reported with good grace, the wave of defections that the Governor Obaseki’s camp is suffering. They have reported with unmatched accuracy, the conflict between a frayed, disappointed and distraught Phillip Shaibu (Edo Deputy Governor/Obaseki’s running mate) and his suspected niggardly boss, who has refused to fund his own campaign. They have closely reported the public declaration of support for Pastor Ize-Iyamu, but what they have gone on to misreport is an alleged support for the underwhelming Obaseki.

Read Also: ’Why we are different from Oshiomhole, Ize-Iyamu’

“While there is photographic and even video evidence to support the public declaration of support for Pastor Ize-Iyamu by the Obaseki family, the solitary evidence the brewed declaration for Obaseki can point to is the written testimony of one Osazee Ize-Iyamu, who is clearly a concoction of the Obaseki campaign body. Should it even happen that such a character exists, he does not speak the mind of the family. For him to do so there should at least have been a quarter of the family members present.

“Sadly, copy and paste agencies have plagiarised the fabrication from such media agencies as ThisDay Newspapers (Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu’s families trade support for candidates), Vanguard Newspapers (Drama as Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu drag families into campaign) and Nigerian Tribune (Obaseki, Ize-Iyamu families support rival candidates in Edo poll), among others.

“Pastor Ize-Iyamu’s family feels scandalised by this shocking abandonment of due practice by the media, which will suffer the alleged solitary testimony of one man to represent the opinion of the family, whereas in the same news item, the Obaseki family came in their numbers to endorse the Edo APC’s governorship candidate.

“Also fabricated by the Obaseki campaign organisation is the bewildering story that the family of Prof. Idia Ize-Iyamu (wife of Edo APC’s governorship candidate, who is of the University of Benin Teaching Hospital), has told her to distance herself from her husband’s campaign. While this amounts to a lazy-brained campaign strategy, it is lamentable that certain elements in the media have taken away the joy in campaign reporting by commercialising their services at the expense of professional ethics.

“Due to the damaging misreports, the Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation hereby issues a 48-hour ultimatum to the errant media agencies to retract the discordant and falsely-construed news reports, failure to do which will press the aggrieved parties to seek judicial remedies.”

Our Reporter

The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) support has swelled in Edo North Senatorial District in the last few days.

Amalgamated youth groups from the local governments that make up the district have declared their support for the re-election of Governor Godwin Obaseki.

The groups from the six local governments that comprise the district on Thursday gathered in Auchi, Etsako West, where they declared their support for Governor Obaseki.

Read Also: Obaseki: Edo PDP’s gift and liability

Spokesman for the group, David Ali Peter, said the governor’s outstanding performance in the last four years was commendable.

He said Obaseki’s giants stride in education, road construction, health care, security, job empowerment and industrialisation deserved praises, adding that the governor should be re-elected to put Edo on the path of development.

By Bisi Olaniyi, Benin

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked Governor Godwin Obaseki to make out time for governance.

It said Edo State was on automatic pilot, with Obaseki not having time for governance, but very busy with propaganda.

APC, through its National Vice Chairman, Media Campaign Council, Partick Obahiagbon, at a news conference in Benin, accused the governor of engaging in swashbuckling threats to APC members and placating members of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), who it noted had since turned him (Obaseki) into an Automated Teller Machine (ATM).

It said: “Obaseki, in a smash and grab stratagem before the curtains are finally drawn on his lacklustre four-year tenure, has forgotten one important fact: that he remains the governor of Edo State, even if for a few more months and that from that point of view, the suspension of the governance and leadership of any state is inexcusable and unacceptable, not even for electoral purpose.

Read Also: Ize-Iyamu to Obaseki: explain Edo Assembly Complex tussle

“Matters of governance in Edo State, which was the primary ratiocination why the governor was elected, which in any case have been herein before handled with Olympian aloofness and magisterial pontifications, have now been completely abandoned, jettisoned and forgotten, as the governor has turned his attention, full time, on how to subvert the September 19 election through rigging, intimidation, arm-twisting, unbridled threats, violence and other anti-democratic underhand tactics.

“What we are now regaled with from the Government House, Benin, which in the meantime houses Obaseki, are reports of conflicts over the illegal sharing of Edo State’s resources, turbo charged comments encouraging the youth to embrace violence and mass resignations, which have bespattered the government and reduced governance to a makossa dance and an alawada cabaret show.

“While Obaseki continues to huff and puff, promote and nudge Edo youths onto the path of violence with a contrived megalomania meant to hide his crippling fear of what awaits him at the polls on September 19, governance in Edo State has been abandoned and the citizens are bearing the brunt of this governance nosedive and abandonment.”

APC said the tragedy and failure of leadership playing out in Edo were coming at a time the state and indeed the globe were experiencing the greatest challenge in a lifetime.

Our Reporter

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) says the COVID-19 pandemic may disenfranchise voters in the September 19 governorship election.

INEC Head of Voters Education and Publicity Mr. Timidi Wariowei expressed this concern yesterday in Benin.

He said the commission had not carried out the continuous voter registration exercise as well as the distribution of the Permanent Voter Cards (PVCs) ahead of the election.

Wariowei spoke at a roundtable on the governorship election organised by the Centre for Democracy and Development in Benin.

The theme of the roundtable is “Issue at stake and their implications on the conduct of credible election”.

He assured the electorate that INEC was ready to conduct a credible poll.

Wariowei noted that preparation had begun for the exercise, while fund was never the problem.

Read Also: Edo, Ondo guber polls threatened – INEC

“The need to protect the people against the pandemic is placed above other interests.

“The continuous voter’s registration would have taken care of those that have attained the age of 18 after the last exercise and those that were unable to register for one reason or the other during the exercise.

“The COVID-19 pandemic didn’t allow us to also carry out distribution of the PVCs.

“We don’t want to be accused unnecessarily or seen to be undermining the people, but for their own protection,” he said.

Wariowei said despite the challenges, election must be conducted in the state to avoid constitutional crisis.

He said the poll would be conducted by following the precautionary measures and maintaining social distancing by avoiding mass contact.

According to him, the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) guidelines have been mainstreamed into the guidelines’ provided by the commission for the conduct of the governorship election.

“Every voter at the polling units must wear a face mask. If you don’t have face mask, you must at least have something to cover your nose and mouth to be allowed to vote.

“There must also be a distance of two metres or six feet between each voter on queue at the polling units.

“We will provide alcohol-based disinfectants to be used to disinfect the card reader after every accreditation during the poll.”

Announcing that 14 parties met the deadline for the submission of their candidates, he said training had begun for some officers that would participate in the conduct of the election.

He said training for supervisory presiding officers and collation officers would be the last to be done a week before the poll.

Another participant, Mr. Asunogie Nurudeen of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, advised INEC to ensure that a credible, free and fair poll is conducted in Edo.

By Emmanuel Oladesu, Deputy Editor

The ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) are locked in a supremacy battle in the Edo State House of Assembly.

Seventeen APC lawmakers stormed the House to pull the rug off the feet of Speaker Francis Okiye. In a twinkle of an eye, he was removed.

But, the ‘former Speaker’ kicked against the procedure, saying that it ran foul of the law. He said he had 10 members behind him, maintaining that those who paraded themselves as lawmakers and invaded the House were not recognised by the Constitution.

Okiye said their seats had been declared vacant.

But, the 17 lawmakers disagreed, pointing out that they had reclaimed their seats, following their inauguration in the House by the new Speaker, Victor Edoror, in the morning.

Thursday was a sad day in Edo. The parliament, which is the representative organ and the anchor of popular rule, was in pains.

Embattled Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, rushed to the House to behold its bastardisation.

The House became a theatre of the absurd. Its entrance and exit gates were barricaded with sand and granite. Some thugs were trying to remove the roof of the Assembly building. There was commotion.

Read Also: In Edo, where the cap fits

Okiye said the House, under his leadership, had adjourned till Monday. Edoror said he has been derobed and therefore, should be ignored.

There was a clash of strategies. The House became a casualty of the preparations for the titanic governorship. Peace is not likely to return to the hallowed chamber until the poll is over.

Tragedy hit the House last year, shortly after the state parliamentary elections. The rift between the former godfather, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole and his aggrieved godson, Obaseki, tore the lawmakers-elect apart. They were polarised into pro-Obaseki and pro-Oshiomhole forces.

The hitherto united political family had split. The bone of contention was the choice of the Speaker when the House was inaugurated on July 10, last year. Oshiomhole commanded the loyalty of majority. But, he is an ex-governor with predictable limitations. In the night, Obaseki issued a proclamation on June 14. Only seven lawmakers were inaugurated on June 17. They elected Okiye as Speaker.

The pro-Oshiomhole lawmakers raised a serious objection. But, the House became a no-go area for security reasons. The excluded lawmakers cried out that their constituencies were denied representation. They mounted pressure on the governor to issue a new proclamation. The governor did not oblige them. He said it as illegal.

As tension engulfed the House, the National Assembly tried to intervene. Obaseki rejected their modalities for reconciliation, believing that the Senate and House of Representatives had taken sides in the crisis.

Later, he was strengthened by a Port-Harcourt High Court, which forbade him from repeating the proclamation.

To the camp of Obaseki, the pro-Oshiomhole lawmakers harboured a dangerous plot to impeach him. Therefore, he needed a cooperative Speaker for political security.

But, the strategy did not abort the plot to deny him the APC ticket for a second term.

Will Edoror resume duties today or next Monday at the House? Is pandemonium not imminent?

From last month when the governor defected to the PDP, the plot to take the House of Assembly from his armpit had thickened.

The defection also heralded a crisis of confidence and ultimate realignment of forces. The new permutations in the ‘House of Commotion’ led to the impeachment of Yekini Idiaye as deputy speaker.

What the governor feared may come upon the House. As the hullabaloo persists, the APC-dominated National Assembly may bare its fangs and eventually take over its functions.

Obaseki and Shaibu are talking tough. What is paramount to the APC is to distract the governor at this critical time of election. A divided legislature is a liability to the state. But, a majority House controlled by the opposition will also give him a nightmare.

There is no certainty about where the pendulum will eventually swing. The end of the crisis cannot be predicted. Both camps can only sleep with one eye closed.

The greatest disadvantage to Edo is that governance will be at standstill amid the persistent legislative/executive feud.