Edo 2024: APC deploying diversionary campaign tactics, says Edo govt

The Edo State Government has said that the call by Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) that the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) should investigate Obaseki’s N23 billion investment in hotel and other projects was borne out of the party’s clear incompetence and ignorance of modern governance.

Recall that the Chairman of the Edo State chapter of the APC, Emperor Jarrett Tenebe in a press briefing on Saturday called on the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) to investigate the N23 billion meant for the building of the Radisson hotel by the state governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki

The Edo State Government in a press statement signed by Crusoe Osagie, Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media Projects on Sunday said the press outing was aimed at cajoling Edo people to win support for their candidate.

Osagie, who said the APC is currently putting Nigerians through untold hardship has shortchanged themselves by picking a candidate that is unsuitable for a sophisticated state like Edo and that they are deflecting, hiding their candidate.

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The statement reads in part. “The attention of the Edo State Government has been drawn to an ill-fated press outing by the All Progressives Congress (APC) in which they made a number of spurious and outlandish accusations.

“The shameful event is obviously aimed at cajoling Edo people and fruitlessly staging a strawman’s argument aimed at winning support for their candidate in the September 21 Edo governorship election.

“After this party that is currently putting Nigerians through untold hardship, shortchanged themselves by picking a candidate that is unsuitable for a sophisticated State like Edo, they are deflecting, hiding the candidate behind a needle and taking an aim at novel governance innovations which they lack the capacity to understand because they have the worse intention for the people, stuck in the past and wallow in corrupt practices.”

“Clearly, the APC’s only strategy ahead of the September 21 election is to deploy diversionary tactics and manufacture alternative facts in the hope that this will remove the spotlight from the obvious and disgraceful defects of their candidate, which has made the election a lost cause.

“In their presser, for instance, they rambled on about the ingenious transformation introduced by the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led administration, which they are not intellectually equipped to understand.

“This is not unexpected because you cannot give what you don’t have. The profile of these individuals gives them away as people with no capacity for governance.

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“In trying to sound smart, the APC took a swipe at the government’s e-governance Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, which was placed to drive transparency, accountability, traceability and digitization in government. Arguing that it was overpriced and intended to delete public documents, they exposed their ignorance and betrayed their phobia of technology and forward-thinking.

“Today, not only is Edo the first digitized and most advanced public service in Nigeria, the State has invested in positioning its workforce and its larger population for opportunities presented in the Fourth Industrial Revolution through a robust digitization programme.

“With a state-wide fibre optic cable infrastructure and an advanced ERP system in place, all files have been archived and are easily retrievable.

“Instead, APC is lost in its quest to plunder public resources and is scared that an ERP system would make it impossible for them to steal without a trace.

“So, they are out to demonize the system so that they can nurture the idea of hiding files, demanding bribes for government processes to be hastened and feed fat on an old, dubious and opaque system of administration,” he concluded.