Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has reassured members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) of the conduct of free and fair primaries for the gubernatorial aspirants of the party, explaining that the primaries will be conducted by the national body of the party.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ meeting of the South-South zone of the APC at the Government House, Benin City, Friday, Governor Oshiomhole said, “I think it is easy to understand what we have to do differently. We have to recognize the electoral worth of individual members. That is the way to go. So, all my brothers and sisters, who in my view, spend too much time on controlling structures, we need to be broadminded. My own experience is that we need to be broad minded, not just to accommodate but to accept people of different and divergent views within the same political family, and concede space to those we know have what it takes. The truth is that on the election day, the most powerful among us won’t be in the polling booth. If you lucky, you will have one location where you have ten polling booths. The rest of the area will have to be managed by people who are competent and capable, not only to mobilize those votes, but to protect them. So, I think we all have to go back to the drawing board rather than look for what they did against us, to look at what we didn’t do in order to get victory.”
Oshiomhole explained further, “In the contest of the forthcoming election, I am happy that we have some of the aspirants in this room. I have spoken to them over and over. Our party has a tradition. Elections are conducted by the national body, not by the state chapter of the party. And we are fortunate to have at the national body the very head coming from Edo State. So, the primary should be free and fair. It is not a choice. It is not a favour.”
Governor Oshiomhole who welcomed APC members from the South-South to the meeting expressed delight for the opportunity to host the party members. He said, “A couple of months back, up to three months ago, I suggested to the zonal Vice Chairman that I wasn’t comfortable with the fact that all our zonal meetings were rotating from Port Harcourt to Cross River to Delta and then back to Delta, and I said no. Delta people may be richer than us but we are their elder brother, the Bendel. In the spirit of Bendel, I don’t accept that we keep meeting in Delta and we don’t meet in Edo State, particularly so that God had favoured us to be the only state standing at the level of governorship, and I want to be able to enjoy the privilege of playing host to leaders of our party from the South-South zone.”
Speaking on the occasion, the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Chief John Odigie Oyegun who was represented on the occasion by the Deputy National Chairman, Engr. Segun Oni said, “We are the incumbent government here, and as the incumbent government, our government has done very well. so, we can campaign in the name of the government, and we know the reaction of the people will be positive. In spite of this, we will not rest on our oars. We know that the opposition we have has reduced itself to a rag-tag cabin. As at the last count now, they already have about three and half chief executives already running the party together.”
He continued, “I am sure a state that is as sophisticated as Edo State, and its people who have always been in the forefront of in the fight for liberty, the fight for progressive politics cannot put their destiny in the hands of people who cannot manage themselves. Therefore, we know when the time comes, they will only be regarded as jokers. Therefore, it is a done deal, but we will not rest on our oars.”
In a key note address, the National Vice Chairman, South-South, of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Prince Hilliard Eta said, “While celebrating a distinguished Governor and the party in Edo, this gathering of progressives today should be used as a unique occasion for reflecting on the successful consummation of the merger process of the legacy parties that formed our great party and the journey so far. It is also an opportunity to put our immediate past in perspective to remind ourselves of the obligations and assurances we have given and would have to continue to give to Nigerians as we assume the onerous task of fixing the country.”
Prince Hilliard admonished party members, “Today, we are in a new era that is completely different from the past. The era of ours is to mould; and we must use the chance to correct the past mistakes and malfeasance. Agreeing that what happened in the South-South fell below standard, the Edo polls should provide us the opportunity of addressing it: we must keep the standard in love. We have the opportunity of unleashing terror on our opponents, but we should not condescend to men of low esteem in reasoning along the line of rigging, especially when we have our performance index to speak for us. What do we do to approach the election victoriously is what we have to consider. Today, Edo as they say, is the last stronghold of we in the South-South APC. In fact, our pride as a party in this zone is Edo and that is why we must do all within our reach to retain and establish it as the beautiful bride that all other states in the zone would want to emulate or be attracted to. Indeed, we must stake enormous resources to campaign in all the nooks and crannies of the state leveraging on the performance index of the APC state government.”
He said, “Let me urge all the aspirants that are contesting the party primaries to play by the rules; there should be no campaign of calumny, no fighting, and no bigotry.  As we go into the primary election, one mindset is real, one of you will emerge and whoever that person is, he is a candidate of all and his subsequent victory will be for all. For us as a party, we want to come back to Edo, have a round table with all of the aspirants and the candidate and decide on how to jointly move Edo forward from where Governor Oshiomhole has left it.”