The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday hinted at what the electioneering for the September 19 Edo State governorship election would look like when both traded hot words.
While the Chairman of the APC National Campaign Council for the state, Mr. Abdullahi Ganduje, promised to dismantle alleged PDP’s rigging machine and send the Chairman of its campaign council, Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, to the isolation centre, the main opposition party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, replied that the ruling party’s campaign head was lacking in moral integrity to stand before a decent public.
Ganduje had after the council’s inauguration expressed optimism about the party reclaiming Edo State, which it lost to the opposition party with the defection of the Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki.
He told reporters in Abuja shortly after the inauguration of the campaign committee and the reconciliation committees for both Ondo and Edo States that the APC had mapped out a strategy to stop the PDP from winning the governorship election.
He said the party would dismantle the rigging strategy of the PDP in the state.
According to him, the composition of the committee is an indication that the APC is ready for the election and will strive to win the governorship election.
But the PDP yesterday said the confession by the APC governorship candidate for Edo State, Mr. Osagie Ize-Iyamu, further validated the position by his party’s former national chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, that he is unfit to be a governor.
Ganduje said: “We know the opposition is planning to rig the election; we know their tactics; we know their methodology and we shall dismantle all their tactics to ensure that we win this election.”
Asked if the committee has a soft spot for Obaseki who was their colleague until a few months ago, Ganduje said there was none.
He added: “There is no soft spot for anything like that. The issue is that first of all, we know PDP made Governor Nyesom Wike their chairman; I assure you, we will isolate Wike in an isolation centre and before he recovers, the election is over.
“The PDP decided to accommodate our former governor in Edo State not because they have anything in common; not because they share some ideological feelings, but simply because he is managing the treasury of Edo State and they want him to use that treasury in order to win the election.
“But I assure you, the people of Edo State are watching they know that somebody who was assisted in 2016 to win an election, somebody who was given every cooperation to succeed in the governance of Edo State without doing much for the people, at the end of it, he has taken the treasury and now handed it over to PDP in order to win the election.”
Ganduje said he was optimistic that the people of Edo State would come out en masse to vote for APC.
He stated that the composition of the committee would ensure victory for the party.
He said the campaign council would work with the leadership of the party in Edo State in order to understand the political terrain and know the areas of strength and weaknesses, and areas that the campaign council could take advantage and even areas of threat.
Earlier, the Chairman of the Caretaker Committee and the Governor of Yobe State, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, is reported as saying the assignment before the reconciliation and campaign committees included forging a peaceful and united APC and to reclaim Edo State.
He noted that the members of the reconciliation and campaign council were carefully appointed, adding that this has given hope and confidence that they would succeed.
Buni appealed to stakeholders and members of the party to support the peace initiative of the party for the stronger, united, and prosperous APC.
