…as PDP replies APC over claims of threat to Edo workers
Public campaign for the Saturday, September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State will come to an end in a matter of hours from now, going by the INEC timetable and schedule of activities, and political parties and their candidates have been making last-minute frantic efforts to keep the voters they have already won as well as possibly win undecided voters over to their side.
Last Saturday, the ruling party in the state, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), held its grand finale campaign rally in Benin City, which attracted party bigwigs including former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, PDP governors across the states, among others, just as the grand rally of the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) also witnessed the presence of Vice President Kassim Shettima and others. On Wednesday (yesterday), the Labour Party held its grand rally in Benin City, which was attended by the party’s presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Peter Obi.
After the final rallies, the parties and their candidates have continued their campaigns in anticipation of the close of public campaigns by the midnight of Thursday (today).
Saturday’s election, political analysts have said, is a three-horse race between the candidates of the PDP, Asue Ighodalo, APC, Monday Okpebholo, and Labour Party (LP), Olumide Akpata.
According to data from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 2,629,025 voters registered to take part in the election, out of which 2,249,780, or 85.57 per cent, have collected their PVCs, while 379,245, or 14.43 per cent, PVCs remain uncollected as of the close of the extended collection period on Sunday, 16th September 2024.
But the PDP and the APC seem to be at each other’s neck ahead of the election.
On Wednesday, the Special Adviser on Media Projects to the Edo State governor, Crusoe Osagie, took a swipe at the Media Consultant to the Edo APC Governorship Campaign Council, Kassim Afegbua, over claims that “the jobs of civil servants have been threatened”.
Osagie, in a statement, described Afegbua’s claim as “one of his infantile, mischievous, and utterly baseless statements”.
“In the hogwash which was a clear reflection of his warped thinking, Afegbua lowered the bar of commonsense, scribbling falsehoods, lies, and mistruths in his desperate attempt to cajole civil servants into voting his failed party and its deadbeat candidate,” Osagie said.
“This is however not surprising coming from Afegbua, as these sorts of lies can only make sense in the jaundiced minds of his likes, for whom anything goes, and because anything goes for them, they think it is the same for other people.
“We want to equivocally state that there is no such thing and the government never made any statements whatsoever threatening civil servants. The dimwitted scribbling is not only false but a figment of the jaundiced imagination of Kassim Afegbua, whose loyalty is to mammon and not the people,” he said.
Osagie said the civil servants in Edo State are Nigeria’s happiest workers, noting that “they are liberated and well-empowered and have no reason to vote for Kassim Afegbua’s sinking party, the APC, whose government at the centre has not only superintended the liquidation of the Nigerian State but has inflicted untold hardship and suffering on the people”.
“In fact, the performance of the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government in the last eight years, particularly in the civil service, including paying the highest minimum wage in the country, improving of working environment, introduction of health insurance for all Edo workers, prompt payment of salaries and pensions, migration to Contributory Pension Scheme, the training, retraining and continuous training for the workers, no civil servant in Edo State needs to be coerced to vote for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP),” Osagie said.
“Kassim Afegbua is only expressing his frustration having come to the understanding that the vote of every civil servant in Edo State will go to the PDP and he can’t deal with it.
“Afegbua can continue living in a fool’s paradise, lying to himself to satiate his gluttonous appetite while all Edo people who want the best for their State and have witnessed firsthand the bold and impactful transformation of their State in the last eight years under the leadership of Governor Obaseki come out on September 21 to secure the victory of the PDP and its candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, to build on the foundation that has been laid in the last eight years,” he said.
This is even as the APC accuses 3 INEC staff of plot to compromise election.
The APC, in a letter addressed to the INEC Chairman and titled ‘Attempt to Compromise the Edo Governorship Election’, alleged that three staff of the electoral umpire, HOD Operation, Inoyengieni Frank Ogbise, the Head of ICT, Lawrence Akan, and the Electoral Officer (EO) of Akoko Edo LGA, Blessing Suleman, are concluding plots to thwart the will of the people of the state.
“Flowing from the above, we urge you to use your good office to intervene, as our party has lost confidence in the ability of these staff to conduct a free and fair election in Edo State on behalf of your Commission,” the party said.
