Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Edo State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, inaugurated its Campaign Council, with Major-General Cecil Esekhaigbe (rtd), as its Director-General.
A former deputy governor of the state, Mr. Lucky Imasuen is Deputy Director-General, while a former deputy Chief Whip of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Pally Iriase, is Secretary of the Campaign Council.
Inaugrating the Council in Benin City, Acting State Chairman of the APC, Col. David Imuse (rtd), urged the people of the state to ask governor Godwin Obaseki how much allocation he received from the Federation Account in the last four years and how he spent the money.
In his acceptance speech, Gen. Esekhaigbe, thanked the party
for making him “the Isaiah of our time because God asked who will go for us and Isaiah stepped out and said send me Lord, I will go”, adding that it is in that spirit he accepted to prosecute the campaign to its logical conclusion.
“Our mission is very clear and definitive to reclaim Osadebey Avenue and God is telling Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the governor of Edo State come November 12, 2020.
“There is going to be paradigm shift in this campaign, we are not going to base our issues on insults and provocative words because when they go low, we are going to go very high.
“In this vein, we have a candidate who has a track record of what it takes to govern a state because he has passed through the tutelage of governance and there is nothing except for God to anoint him to do it himself this time.
“The mission is very clear, what we want to do is to take the campaign to the grassroots because it is only when you don’t have anything to say that you resort to insult and putting of fake stories in the news media, this is time for business and I assure you we will not fail you”, Gen. Esekhaigbe said.
He stated that the Council will critically analyse what the outgoing government has done, stressing that it was left for Edo people to decide if your lives have been better today than four years ago, whether roads and infrastructure, health, agriculture, social investment programme have impproved.
“These are the things we are going to tell Edo people that we have a better programme”, he said, warning parents guardians not to allow their children and wards to used to foment trouble.
“Let me warn those dogs and the owners of those dogs that might want to release them to cause mayhem, be warned that you do not wake up a lion by making some stupid mistakes, I will advise parents to hold their wards and admonish them that this time is not a joke.
“Insecurity is synonymous with our dear state as at today but I want to assure you that with Ize-Iyamu as governor, he already has the template for security this he will implement. Ize-Iyamu will give the government of Edo people to Edo people”, he stressed.
In his speech, the governorship candidate of the APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu said anybody who has gone through the list of members of the Campaign Council will attest that the first eleven in the Edo State’s political class has been assembled togethe.
“We are talking of men and women who have distinguished themselves in their various fields, we are talking of people who have won elections before, people who have held office before, people who Edo people know to come together to support one person and to also be part of his campaign team, speaks volume of the persons that have been chosen.
“This list has sent a great signal to those who are in doubt about the strength of APC in Edo that we are not only formidable but we have all it takes to regain our state and by the grace of God, we are going to regain our state.
“Our campaign will be issue driven, we will not resort to their pettiness, we will not resort to their lies and blackmail and we will not even resort to their destructive tendencies and violence.
“Whereas their billboard that have been on the streets that nobody has touched, you will notice that they continue to destroy our billboards by night, we will just appeal to them to give peace a chance and not by destroying our bill boards, if you think the billboards are you problems, please do more around it, that is the beauty of democracy.
“We encourage those on the other side to come with their agenda and also tell us their stewardship; we need to talk to our people because our people deserve to know who they are voting for.
“I am sure many of you know the way our primaries were conducted in spite of the very strange law, that law is peculiar only to Edo State and it was targeted at us, but we still complied and we were able to do the primaries that was peaceful and transparent”, Ize-Iyamu said.