A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Chief Francis Inegbeniki, the Uzoya of Esanland, is feeling cool that the governor of the state, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has left the APC for good, saying that Obaseki’s guber ticket “is a wasted ticket”, adding he “has no electoral value”.
However, he dropped a bombshell for the leaders and members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), where Obaseki has gone to to pursue his second term ambition. Inegbeniki boastfully said that the PDP has carried a liability from the APC because Obaseki is not a good governorship material, noting the PDP will regret seriously for accepting Obaseki into their party.
Inegbeniki, stated all these and more during an interview with Sir Ralph Okhiria, in Benin City.
Excerpts.
What are your views and expectations about the upcoming governorship election in Edo State?
The election is as good as won. Come September 19, Pastor Ize-Iyamu will be declared the governor of Edo State. The reason is very clear. It is clear in the sense that PDP is fielding Governor Godwin Obaseki and it is just a wasted ticket.
Let me particularly advice the National Chairman of PDP, Uche Secondus that their ticket to Obaseki is a wasted ticket. That ticket is just like Zimbabwe dollars, worthless, because APC as a party, which I also advised other parties against to ensure that their candidates have no comma in their academic qualification. So, APC will retain Edo State as the ruling party.
What is your advice to the people of Edo State, as the election is fast approaching?
Edo people should wake up. Only recently, we are beginning to see documents of how Obaseki looted Edo State treasury; are we going to talk about the Agric Premium, the Agric money from CBN. Edo people should open their eyes, shine your eyes very well, before saying Obaseki performed. Where is the work? I challenge Godwin Obaseki to publish in five Nigerian newspapers all the jobs he has done in Edo State since he became governor and the allocation he has collected. If he fails to bring them out, we will publish it soon, the total allocations that Godwin Obaseki has collected in almost four years. I challenge him to publish what he has done, publish the allocation he has received and other statutory money he has received, he should publish it. Edo people will discover that tax payers money have been looted.
Where did Obaseki get the money that he has been sharing to PDP people? He has put all PDP Chairmen as SSA (Senior Special Assistants), sharing money all over. Where did he get the money? I am also calling on EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission) to please beam their searchlight on Edo State Treasury. They should help us to follow our money to know where and how it is being spent.
Some Local Government Chairmen now cannot pay salaries; ask them what happened to their money. We are aware, I am quoting figures that N100m is being deducted from Local Government Chairmen nearly every month. I was reliably informed and the money they stashed in an account. So I am asking Edo people, I am begging them to shine their eyes, when you vote people into position, ask them questions, they should be accountable.
What is your reaction to Obaseki’s leaving your party, the APC to PDP?
It is good riddance to bad rubbish. In fact, let me describe it, Obaseki’s exit from APC is like 200kg of rice that somebody is carrying on his head and at the same time you tell the same person to trek a long distance with it. By the time you remove that bag from his head, he will feel a sigh of relief. We thank God he has gone out of our party for good. it would have been difficult to campaign for him for his second term. I don’t know what he is going to campaign with now because most of those small, small roads he is claiming he did, they were done by Seefor, World Bank project and Edo State Government money contribution into it is about 10 percent. So let him publish all the road projects he claimed to have been executed, we are waiting. Most of them were done by NDDC. We are waiting; we have the records. So it is a heavy load that has left the head of APC and let PDP inherits that load now.
So, does it not bother your party that some of the governor’s followers are leaving the APC to join him in PDP?
It is unfortunate that people are not reading it very well. Some of those Local Government Chairmen or most of them, are our boys that we appointed to go there, they are only there because they are preserving their jobs, to save their jobs. I can tell you I am from Esan Central, today, three Councilors, particularly my councilor from ward 9 Opoji, he refused to decamp to PDP, they are now forcing them to cross to PDP and my Councilor refused and said he is not going to cross, today he has been suspended. Three Councilors suspended from Esan Central, two suspended from Esan North East local government but I tell you, it is no problem. The people with Obaseki now, I can tell you authoritatively, they are all his appointees. Count them, are they up to 1000? If they are maybe a little above 1000 the Councilors and his Chairmen, SAs and Commissioners that is all. Those are the people with him. It will not make any significant impact but I can assure you that some of them will come back to us when that time comes but we are telling them to wait and collect some money from him. You know he is tight fisted human being; so, they can only collect their salaries from him, that is it.
Do you see Ize-Iyamu having a smooth sail against an incumbent governor in the person of Mr. Godwin Obaseki?
As an APC leader, I can tell you honestly, a man who could not win his own ward during the Presidential election. He boasted on 2019 to Mr. President that he will give him one million votes, I was there when he told him he will give him one million votes but he did not win his own ward. He does not have any electoral value. Ize- Iyamu is a grassroots politician; he will beat him silly. APC will beat him silly. Look, with Obaseki as a candidate, we will not do so much work because he will not have nobody behind him on the day of election. A man that was actually a force in the PDP has left, that was Pastor Ize-Iyamu. The moment he left, he left with teens of thousands of his supporters. What you are seeing there is a ship that is bent already, ready to sink. So we do not need to do so much work, it will be very easy for us with Obaseki as the candidate of the main rival political party.
About Author
