- PDP Replies Ganduje: You Have No Moral Standing
The All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Monday traded hot words over the upcoming gubernatorial election in Edo state, in what sounded like a prelude to the likely bickerings, ushering in the months-long campaign in the state.
The Chairman of the APC National Campaign Council coordinating the Edo state election, 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.
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But the comment had barely landed before the main opposition party’s National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan said 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.
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.”
But the PDP in a statement by Ologbondiyan said: “Governor Ganduje and other APC leaders are so used to looting public treasury that such is his first mental direction after his inauguration to lead the Edo State governorship campaign.
“Governor Ganduje has further confirmed the real intention of the APC, which is to use their morally embattled candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu (of course, birds of the same feathers flock together) for their desperate effort to regain access to Edo State treasury, after Governor Godwin Obaseki, liberated the state from the stranglehold of APC treasury-looting godfathers.”
The PDP added that a confession made by the APC governorship candidate in 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.
Ize-Iyamu had told an online TV last weekend that he was rusticated, forcing him to stay away from school for two years while schooling at the University of Benin (UNIBEN).
Though, Iyamu said he was wrongly rusticated over an acid pouring incident because the school couldn’t identify the perpetrator of the act on the victim he rescued, the PDP said the confession by Ize-Iyamu that he was a member of a secret club while in the university has validated a comment reportedly credited to Oshiomhole that he is unfit to be a governor.
“Certainly, Edo State, at this critical time, does not deserve a governor who will pull her backward by being weighed down by a huge moral burden of daily excuses and explanations on issues and allegations of misdeeds.
“It is indeed unfortunate that the APC is now stuck with a candidate that is burdened by a huge image problem; a candidate who has no message or any blueprint to develop the state; who does not enjoy the support of the people but that of a few selfish individuals, whose interest is only to gain access to the coffers of the state,” the party stated.
Amid the mudslinging, Ganduje reiterated that 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.
