Benin City – The Edo chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has lamented the postponement of the state Governorship election to September 28, from the earlier scheduled to take place on September 10.
Mr Anselm Ojezua, the state chairman of the party, stated this in a press conference in Benin, on Friday.
Ojezua who bemoaned lamenting the failure to consult critical stakeholders before announcement of the postponement, he regretted the time and resources that have been expanded on electioneering campaign these past weeks.
It would be recalled that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), had on Thursday night, yielded to security agencies call for the poll postponement over security threat.
The chairman however said infiltration into Edo, militants he alleged have been recruited by the opposition party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), call for serious concern.
“First, the shift in the date for the election was announced without due consultation with the critical stakeholders which includes the All Progressives Congress (APC).
“We believe that the timing and mode of communication by the security agencies could have been better handled having regards to the very hard work and huge resources deployed towards the election by all concerned.
“On our part, we have traversed the nooks and crannies of the State in the course of our electioneering campaigns and we have been able to effectively market our candidates and our manifesto.
“In that same process our members have been fully sensitized and mobilized in readiness for the election culminating in our final campaign at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium on the 6th of September which recorded the highest level of mobilization ever witnessed in that facility.
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It will therefore be fair to admit that the decision has adversely affected us somewhat.
“However, having regards to the provisions of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Electoral act, we are obliged to defer to the decision of INEC particularly when ”security threats” have been cited as the reason for the postponement.
“Although we do not have the details from the security agencies we have, in the past, drawn attention to the influx of militants into Edo from neighboring States during the Continuous Voters Registration exercise.
“As a matter of fact some of them were in fact arrested at Ologbo in Ikpoba Okha LGA and charged to Court but a host of others made it without detection; those ones must be lurking around various locations within our State even as we speak.
“Data capturing machines were found to have been given to unauthorized persons to carry out illegal registration; a case in point is that of Alhaji Nakowa, a known PDP chieftain in Etsako Central, who was arrested with some unscrupulous INEC staff while engaged in illegal registration acts in a private residence in the middle of the night.
All these, taken with the reported threat by the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Nwike to the effect that the APC people should go and write their will should be a source of concern to any right thinking person.
“You recall that the last time the same man issued the same threat in Port Harcourt several people lost their lives including Youth Corpers who had been deployed to assist in the exercise in that State.
Elections have largely been peaceful in Edo State since 2007 until the sudden interest of the Governors of Rivers State and Delta State who are hell bent on realizing the long standing obsession of an individual to rule this State by all means.
“The postponement, therefore, provides an opportunity for the security agencies to address these concerns in addition to whatever other threats they may have discovered.
Ojezua urged supporters of the APC to be calm and remain vigilant, stressing that they must not allowed themselves to be provoke by the antics of the PDP, whose intention is to cause problems in the state.
