…challenges other parties’ candidates to issue-based debate
The Deputy Director General, Media and Publicity for the Edo PDP 2024 Governorship Election Campaign Management Council, Rev. Olu Martins, has urged Edo people to queue behind Asue Ighodalo, whom he described as the most competent candidate in the forthcoming September 21, 2024 governorship election in the state.
Rev. Martins, who led members of the Asue Ighodalo and Osarodion Ogie Media Team on a courtesy visit to the Management of Independent Television and Radio at their corporate office in Benin City, said the candidate of the PDP is the most competent in the race to Osadebey Avenue.
“Edo people should queue behind the candidate that is competent and we are prepared at anytime ITV decides to conduct a debate to engage the governorship candidates and we are challenging other candidates to come out to tell the people what they have to offer for a better Edo State,” Martins said.
He therefore challenged the governorship candidates of the other political parties to a debate to tell Edo people what they have to offer because the best candidate must emerge governor.
Rev. Martins disclosed that the PDP is very clear about its principal and his running mate on what they stand for to deliver good governance to the people.
“We are clear on the pedigree of Asue Ighodalo and Osarodion Ogie who are role models. The basis for qualification in this race is based on ideas and what you have done before and how you can do it better,” Martins noted.
“If we want a role model for our leaders and our young children, we can boastfully say that Asue Ighodalo and Osarodion Ogie should be what our children should look like. We have argued that the best people should preside over the rest of the people.
“There is nobody who will employ a mediocre person that is not sound to work in an organization. Today, you are the Managing Director of ITV and Radio because you are a professional and you are competent. They could not have recruited somebody here who is mediocre because by now this place would no longer be a reputable media organization.
“Leadership is that the best of the people should preside over the rest of the people. If the nation state must move forward, we want to get involved so that we can move this state forward and we are consciously behind a candidate that knows what to do; he has done it before at his own micro level, his resume speaks volumes,” he said.
Rev. Martins said the campaign team will collaborate with the media to inform Edo people what the PDP has done and what will be done for the people, noting that the campaigns will be strictly on issues.
“If ITV conducts a debate anytime, any day on any subject matter, we are challenging them to come and speak for themselves. Let us hear their ideas on security, education and other issues because over eighty days after their candidates’ emergence on the other side we have not seen any media engagement, while there have been over one hundred engagements from Asue Ighodalo at all levels,” he said.
On his part, the Managing Director of ITV/RADIO, Mr. Elvis Obaseki, disclosed that ITV/RADIO is apolitical and unbiased in its reportage, noting that they will create a level playing ground for all candidates.
“We will go by the guidelines of all the regulatory agencies coordinating election, especially the Independent National Electoral Commission(INEC). I want to make it very clear to the seventeen candidates that ITV/RADIO will not take sides with any political party.
“In politics, people have a way of misinterpreting simple information and blow it out of proportion. ITV/RADIO will not be a medium to push the wrong ideology, but the organization will create a friendly atmosphere to accommodate all parties to run their campaign manifesto,” he said.
