Edo State governor, Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has asked the Peoples Democratic Party to bury its idea of reclaiming the state in the September 10 gubernatorial election as a campaign “dead on arrival”.
Governor Oshiomhole, who made this statement during a stakeholders’ meeting of the All Progressive Congress in Benin, averred that absence of the PDP governors at the flag-off of the party governorship campaign showed that they had already rejected the candidate of one of its factions.
He said, “The campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party for the forthcoming governorship election in the state is dead on arrival. Whether you like it or not, the PDP engine is dead on arrival.
“The early morning signals are clear. For the first time since 1999, a candidate was being presented to the people of Edo State for the most important single job and the key pillars were there fastened to their chairs and their tables, none of them could stand on their feet to say one word.”
Ahead of the official flag-off of the gubernatorial campaign of the APC, he said that while the ruling party was the only party that offers hope to all our people, the PDP lacked the support of its leadership.
Oshiomhole said, “While the PDP couldn’t get any national person of note to present a tattered flag, our own national chairman will be around, as a former governor, former federal permanent secretary and national chairman of the governing party to present the flag to our candidate.
“My brother governors will be coming from Friday; all the progressives governors will be here to show solidarity. We are not going to be represented by one governor. The governors will come.”
The governor, who recently reconciled with his deputy, Pius Odubu, over the emergence of the party’s flag bearer, said, “I submit and I decree that the fact that he (Odubu) readily accepted in the manner that he did shows that he knew that he has a stake in this house because his sweat together with your sweat was used to mold the blocks with which this house was built.”
“The reason the Deputy Governor’s position is extremely important is that there is nobody that has any reason to be more aggrieved in status, in rank than him,” he added.
