From Tony Osauzo, Benin
Former national chairman of All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, has called for unity among party faithful in Edo State to enable it retain the presidency in 2023 and reclaim the state in the 2024 governorship poll.
The former Edo State governor stated this at a rally in Sabongida-Ora, headquarters of Owan West Local Government Area of the state, where he received former political adviser to Governor Godwin Obaseki, Ojo Asein, and his followers back to the APC.
“We are here to receive and reallocate a very beautiful room in our political family house to my son, Asein, and several others who have come with him,” he said.
Oshiomhole lauded the emergence of Bola Tinubu as the presidential candidate of the party, just as he commended the APC governors from the North and President Muhammadu Buhari who agreed that the presidency should return to the South.
Speaking further on Tinubu, he said: “In politics when somebody says I shall do this and that, you must ask, what has he done before? In Tinubu, we have a man who looks for brains to help drive his vision. We see in Asiwaju a huge political school where he will enrol you, train you and then deploy you; we have examples like the current Minister of Interior, Rauf Aregbesola; Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola, who I call my captain when I was a governor; (former Lagos governors), Akinwumi Ambode and now we have Babajide Sanwo-Olu.”
He also commended the Independent Electoral Commission (INEC) on its innovations in checking rigging of elections and urged the people to ensure they register and get their permanent voters’ cards (PVC) to exercise their franchise in 2023.
“The wealth of a leader is that your word must be your bond, I want to assure you we will be back again and we will continue from where we stopped and Edo will prosper. United we will win, we are united now, they are divided. Just few weeks back, I saw some people who said we are battle tested and we are not battle weary and then few weeks later, they said we need peace after the way the APC defeated them in Ekiti and we will do the same in Osun,” Oshiomhole said.
Commenting on his senatorial ambition, Oshiomhole said: “We want to go there with new ideas so that our country can work because when you are the only one who has food to eat, those who are hungry will convert you to their own food so it is a matter of common sense to rebrand, to re-budget, to ensure what we do, we do it not because of ourselves but because of the vast majority of the poor Nigerians.”