Edo Poll: Emulate Buhari, APC Tells PDP, Obaseki, Wike

The All Progressives Congress (APC) on Tuesday called on the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to purge itself of what it termed the party’s “age-long undemocratic habits of election rigging, vote buying, violence, abuse of state institutions for political ends.”

The party, in a statement issued by its spokesman, Yekini Nabena, said the opposition party should instead address itself to the new realities that under the President Muhammadu Buhari-led APC administration, power belongs to the people and votes count during polls.

Nabena said the President had shown that the days of stolen and procured electoral mandates were fast fading from his declaration that the APC could have used the military and other security services to overrun opposition states in the 2019 general election but chose free, fair elections instead.

He maintained that critical state institutions such as the Judiciary, INEC and security services had been the ultimate beneficiaries of the President’s impartiality and non-interference approach.

The APC spokesman called for support for the independence of state institutions to deepen the country’s democracy and improve on the electioneering system.

Ahead of the Edo State Governorship election,

He further said the Edo PDP governorship candidate, Governor Godwin Obaseki, “continually spins puerile conspiracies” on the role of “federal might”, while using his “Obaseki Boys” and state apparati under his control to harass the State House of Assembly and APC members in the state.

He also added: “On his part, Governor Nyesom Wike as head of the PDP campaign council threatens violence.”

Nabena called on the PDP to join the APC on issue-based campaigns and “at least attempt to sell to the Edo electorate the merit of their candidate, if any.”

Furthermore, he accused the PDP and Obaseki of being in panic over what he described as “massive and widespread support given by the Edo electorate to the APC governorship candidate, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.”

He concluded “The APC’s people-focused development records across the country forms the basis of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu’s six-point ‘SIMPLE agenda’ for the good people of Edo State which stands for Security, Infrastructural development, Manpower development, Public Private Partnership, Leadership and Employment creation.”