Chukwudi Nweje
Governorship candidate of the National conscience Party (NCP) in Edo State, Pastor Peters Osawaru Omoragbon, has called on the people of the state to reject the candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Gov. Godwin Obaseki and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu at the polls.
He said the PDP and the APC are two sides of the same coin that are only interested in plundering the state’s resources, saying the electorate should elect any other party, but not the PDP or the APC.
He said: “the best alternative is anyone from any of the new political parties including the NCP. The Edo State issues cannot be divorced from the national politics of the APC. The entire leadership of the APC from the presidency have demonstrated they lack what it takes to lead a nation like Nigeria. A situation where the President panders to the caprices of an assistant general secretary as their party’s acting national chairman calls for serious questioning. Where was their Deputy National Chairman, or Vice-Chairmen? Yet, somebody said the President was given the best legal advice to do what he did. When the head of the fish is rotten, the body stinks. The stench emanating from both APC and PDP is suffocating. They need cleansing.”
Omoragbon, whose party, the NCP are in court with the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) over the omission of the party’s name and logo as well as their candidate in the provisional register of political parties participating in the election, accused the electoral commission of trying to frustrate the party.
“NCP was likely the first party to inform INEC in writing about its primary in Edo state. When our National Secretary took the letter to INEC office Abuja, they refused to collect the letter. We had the letter delivered by Courier and we have our proof of delivery. We went as far as writing the police and the SSS. Only to be invited by the assistant commissioner of police with the SSS in attendance threatening us not to carry out our primaries. We asked if the right to free assembly was now in crime in Nigeria. They asked if we had gotten approval from the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control (NCDC).”
He said he is not desperate to become governor, but wants to enlighten the people of the state and enrich the electoral process by letting them know that they have other alternatives to choose from.
He criticised the processes of the emergence of the PDP and the APC candidates, saying it is a political reawakening for the people.
“The PDP and APC believe Edo State and indeed the whole of Nigeria is their political chessboard and that they can play on our intelligence as they like. They are capitalising on the abject poverty of the people and their sheer ignorance because of the low level of awareness and education which were deliberately foisted on us”, he said.