The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State has said that voters in the state will punish incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki at the polls for allegedly offending the traditional institution of Benin via a social media attack on the palace of the Oba of Benin linked to officials of the Edo State Government at the end of the peace meeting involving governorship candidates for the September 19 election and the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II; in addition to attacks on Captain Hosa Okunbo.
Chairman of the APC Media Campaign Council, John Mayaki, in a statement in Benin City declared: “Clearly, with the endless roll call of notables who have voiced their support for and are committing their names to the success of Pastor Ize-Iyamu, candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the 19 September gubernatorial election, the game is up for Governor Godwin Obaseki.
“Godwin Obaseki has offended not just the political class that superintended his emergence as governor of the state by his illogical predilections, but also by lording only seven assembly members above whole 17 in a 24-member state assembly; Obaseki has offended the entire Edo State and people. He offends the people and calls them illiterates when he parades himself as a democrat. Clearly, today, he is a king without a kingdom. He lost the coming election well over three years ago.”
Mayaki further stated: “Okunbo cannot but be right in voicing his support for Ize-Iyamu, who today enjoys the favour of every meaningful individual, including notable industrialists and monarchs in the state who are just too numerous to mention. Even the electorate across the streets of the state know the next governor of Edo is Pastor Ize-Iyamu.
“Rather than nursing the wounds of his disappointing four-year charade in governance during which he denied several constituencies their legitimate dues by blocking the access of whole 17 duly elected representatives into the state assembly, Obaseki remains unapologetic, calling the bluff of entire citizenry of the state who have tolerated his punishment thus far.
“As a loner left under the heavy weather of politics, he must bring anyone down in his bid to get a second term ticket.
“Obaseki petitioned and took former Deputy Governor, Dr Pius Odubu to court and ensured he was denied the chairmanship of NDDC, just as he equally denied duly elected members of the state assembly inauguration, among others.
“The tyrant demolished hotels and businesses in Edo State, and with defeat staring at him, he wants to now make the state ungovernable. Obaseki is yet to recover from the twin-bombshell unleashed on him by Captain Hosa Okunbo and the tongue-lashing reprimand by the Oba of Benin, especially, calling on his deputy, Philip Shaibu, to call the his thugs to order.
“Obaseki has clearly lost his whole battalion and is just awaiting a directive from the victorious camp to surrender – possibly as a prisoner of war? Why will a drowning man not cling to the last straw in the middle of a raging sea?
“Obaseki’s lies are waiting to be exposed in the votes of people across the zones and constituents whose roads have gone impassable, whose hospitals are lacking barest requisites for treatment of common malaria, whose children learn under the most insufferable of conditions across the schools of the state and who have no jobs!
“We want to, once again, appreciate the Oba of Benin for convoking the peace meeting and thank the courage of Captain Hosa Okunbo in the face of a man obsessed with the practice of tyranny.
“For Obaseki and his ilk, money is all there is to their thinking and the same disease they presume for others. Integrity and duty confound their ranks. In his entire four years reign, Obaseki, with his atavistic lust for cash and worldly pleasures, could not bring the electorate into his reckoning, forgetting he would have to return to them for a renewal of mandate of which he is clearly undeserving.
“Obaseki must be made to understand that Okunbo is already a billionaire and sufficiently wealthy not to commit to a cause just for the sake of the cash. His support for Ize-Iyamu, like many others, stems from assurances of good governance, which Obaseki promised and denied the people. Is it possible to fool the entire state twice?”