. Those Who Brought Obaseki From Nowhere Have The Right To Look Elsewhere- Ize-Iyamu
The Obaseki Mandate Forum, a pressure group, has purchased the expression of interest and nomination forms for Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, for the governorship primary of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
At a news conference on Wednesday, Nathaniel Momoh, the forum’s chairman, said the group has confidence in the governor.
The ruling party has fixed June 22 for selecting its candidate in the governorship election scheduled for September 19, 2020.
Momoh said the people of Edo, both at home and in the Diaspora, raised the money used in purchasing the forms.
“Our friends in the media, it would amaze you to know, that the N22.5 million for the purchase of this forms was sourced from like minds who have the enthronement of good governance,” he said.
“As well as focus on people’s welfare and infrastructural development in Edo since the coming on board of our dynamic, focused and dedicated Gov. Godwin Obaseki.
“We are confident that the will of the people will manifest in an unmistakable term on June 22, when our party conducts its primary for the standard flag bearer in the governorship race. We are convinced that no other name among those whose names are being touted qualifies as the incumbent and performing Gov. Godwin Obaseki.
“We are optimistic that his pedigree will make him emerge winner to lead the party to the democratic contest in which he will again emerge winner to continue to boost the state revenue and infrastructure.”
Also Osagie Ize-Iyamu, governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo, has said that those who brought Godwin Obaseki, governor of the state, to power feel he has not performed up to expectation.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Ize-Iyamu, who picked his nomination and expression of interest forms at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja earlier in the day, said under Obaseki there has been division, rancor and insecurity in the state.
He had contested as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2016 but lost to Obaseki.
Ize-Iyamu defected to the APC in the heat of the crisis between Adams Oshiomhole, APC national chairman, and the incumbent governor.
He said Oshiomhole is yet to endorse him but he would get the support of the APC national chairman after defeating Obaseki in the primary.
“Oshiomhole is not in any faction, Oshiomhole as at today remains the the national chairman of the APC. So if the governor has problems with him, that does not mean that those who respect his position as the national chairman belongs to a faction led by him,” he said.
“Yes, Godwin Obaseki, the governor of the state, wants to come back as governor. And yes, a lot of the leaders of the APC in the state do not agree with that but that does not mean that those who do not agree with him belong to a faction led by the national chairman.
“It is the governor who has said hos second term is non-negotiable, I am surprised because he is now bringing God into it because a man who says my second term is non-negotiable is telling you that even God cannot interfere, that is second term is beyond God, it is beyond party and nobody can say anything about it and maybe they are that’s the crux of the problem because he believes he has come to a position where nobody can even suggest to him that he cannot come back but it doesn’t work in Edo state and the party that put him there has a right to determine who will go there again and the exercise must be a transparent one.