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Tony Osauzo, Benin
The Edo State Media Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC), yesterday, described the administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki as lacking in tangible achievements and his ‘tax collectors’ party, the Peoples Democratic Party as a ‘dying and intimidated party’ struggling for relevance through fake news and name-calling propaganda.
The Chairman of Council, Mr. John Mayaki, in a statement, said the PDP has been completely relegated to the footnote in the buildup to the September 19 election in Edo State because of its escalating internal division sparked by alleged imposition of Governor Obaseki on the state chapter and the failure of the incumbent administration to record any tangible achievements to show.
“The PDP has now turned itself to a fake-news milling machine, weaving unsubstantiated stories and planting the same in the media through faceless groups that exist only in stationery.
“Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu’s complete dominance of the airwaves and the streets of Edo State with his manifesto which contains politically realistic and bold plans to transform and move Edo State forward has further intimidated the insecure and dying PDP.
“The intimidation and incapacity to summon an issue-based response because their late-hour candidate spent four years in office fighting and sponsoring confusion with state funds has reduced the political party to a fake news milling machine where falsehoods and disturbing stories are dispensed and planted in the media through faceless groups.
“They are claiming, through one of their faceless groups, that Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu left the PDP acrimoniously with a supposed conflict that turned the party against him, forgetting that the same was begged, lobbied, and persuaded by the highest echelons of the party to remain when he decided it was time to return home to the APC.
“Suffering defeat-induced amnesia, they perhaps forgot how in December, during the rally held to ceremoniously welcome Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu home to the APC, thousands of the party members across the 18 LGAs of Edo State, including big-wigs, graced the event or staged theirs in their various domains to show solidarity and loyalty to Pastor Ize-Iyamu.
“The spectacle of holding the entire state spell-bound and drawing the support of thousands was one of the first things that welled up the feeling of envy and timidity in Governor Obaseki. The envy and feeling of insecurity led him to shock the entire country by being the first Governor who desperately tried to stop a popular politician, with thousands of followers, from joining and strengthening his party before he left for the PDP where he has once again emerged as a polarizing figure.
“What is left of the PDP in Edo State is a carcass emptied of soul and substance. Yet, even the remnants cannot agree on the forced candidacy of Obaseki. While some remain embittered and will thus see to the party’s final fall on the 19th of September, others are merely putting up a front to fleece the desperate cash cow that is Obaseki before finally heeding the call of political retirement.
“There is nothing left for the PDP to do than to complete its 15 billion naira contract with Obaseki through statements from Abuja by the tax-collectors, even if journalists must now be wary to avoid being used by a dying party on its way to complete oblivion”, the statement said.
But contrary to APC’s claim that the PDP has no tangible achievements to show, State Publicity Secretary of the party, Chris Nehikhare, said the party “so many things to show off with, so many projects, so many things that have been done by the government.
“So with these projects in place, if we from now say we want to print out 10, 15 projects everyday, we will not exhaust it in 72 days, till the day of the election.
“So you can imagine the enormous tasks we have to be able to exhibit, show off, and be able to let people know that these things exist. That is our plan, that is the roadmap, that is our design and while we are doing this, talking about the past, we are also trying to view the pictures for the future for people to understand that when you follow this path, you are trying to reset Edo State where things will be better, where people believe that they are free to achieve whatever they want to achieve without hindrance, where there will be no jealousy or envy that I am better educated than that man and that why is he the one getting this thing”, Nehikhare said.
“So you can imagine the enormous tasks we have to be able to exhibit, show off, and be able to let people know that these things exist. That is our plan, that is the roadmap, that is our design and while we are doing this, talking about the past, we are also trying to view the pictures for the future for people to understand that when you follow this path, you are trying to reset Edo State where things will be better, where people believe that they are free to achieve whatever they want to achieve without hindrance, where there will be no jealousy or envy that I am better educated than that man and that why is he the one getting this thing”, Nehikhare said.
