A serving senator and former governor of Edo State, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has assured that the members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) members decide the governorship candidate of the party in the 2024 election in the state.
Quoting the former APC national chairman at the weekend, the acting chairman of the party in Edo, Jaret Tenebe, said the view was in sync with position of the party.
He said the party would ensure that all hands would be on deck to pave way for a level-playing field for the contestants for APC ticket.
Tenebe said the party was ready to return to the government house in Benin through the ballot box.
He said: “We have a leader in Comrade Adams Oshiomole, who has told us clearly that the people, the party, will determine who flies their flag, and that is the position of the party as of today. There is no one person who will sit in his comfort zone to say this is the candidate.
“For us in the APC, there will be a level-playing field for all the aspirants and we intend to select the best from the array of quality aspirants that we have who are ready to become governor of the state.
“I want to send a message to Godwin Obaseki and the PDP that it is not going to be business as usual and we are ready, willing, and able to get back power. So he should start packing his load to leave the government with his party,” he added.
More than 30 candidates have declared interest in the ticket of the party.
Meanwhile, a former deputy Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Mr. Paul Ohonbamu,, has said that “equity of recognition” must take precedence in deciding the next governor of Edo State.
This was just as he noted that Senator Monday Okpebholo, the APC aspirant from Edo Central senatorial district, remained the cure to the political malady in the Edo governorship election later in the year.
Ohonbamu, who is the spokesperson to the Senator. Monday Okpebholo, Campaign Organisation, spoke on Channels TV programme ‘Politics Today’ monitored in Benin City, the Edo State capital.
He described the permutation by other zones to wrestle power as against the clamour for the turn of Edo Central as “wayward”, adding that parties like the Labour Party (LP), and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) would all go to Edo Central to pick their candidates.
“Various people have one plan or the other but the tenable permutation is the one that deals with equity of recognition. All other permutations are wayward. They call it zoning, but I call it equity of recognition and it is the only way to go now and you see other parties whether PDP, LP are all going that direction.
“In Edo State, whether Edo South, Central or Edo North, we are from the same source, value and volume. No one is bigger in terms of potency than the others. Of course, we talk of majority, yes, Edo South has the majority but I quarrel with my brothers who have the effrontery to say Edo Central is not equal to Edo South.
“That gives me the impression that Edo South people now belong to the ante-diluvian concept of democracy that championed in the days of Plato which believes in the unequal people. But I tell you, if you take Edo central out of Edo state, it will not be complete.
“Edo South has had its own historical possibility. By this year; the second eight years will be completed to make it sixteen years. Oshiomhole, our supreme leader from Edo North, did eight years, so it is time for Edo Central,” he reiterated.
According to him, “As we speak, politics in Edo state is highly infected and the only anti-biotic now is governorship to Edo Central people and the drug itself is Senator Monday Okpebholo , anywhere you go presently in Edo State is Monday Okpebholo.
“So, what I’m basically saying is that for Edo North and Edo South coming on board will be anachronistic and having it again will be excess and the cure for excess is distribution and distribution.”
