The APC has inaugurated a 362-member national campaign council for the Edo State governorship election.
Inaugurating the council headed by Governor Bassey Ottu of Cross River State on Sunday, the National Chairman of the party, Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, charged the members to deliver APC and its candidate, Senator Monday Okpebolo, during the September 21 election.
Ganduje said, “We are happy because our incoming governor and his deputy have already produced a blueprint for the development of Edo State. They are not full of MoUs. They are coming with a blueprint. They are coming with practical steps so that Edo can fully develop and be connected to the centre.”
He further said that the state would not experience full political participation and the dividends of democracy if not connected to the centre.
Also speaking, the National Secretary of the party, Ajibola Basiru, while receiving some new members that dumped other parties for the APC, said their joining would spur the party to victory.
It would be recalled that the newly reinstated Deputy Governor of the State, Philip Shaibu, on Saturday led other legacy coalition members of the PDP and their supporters to officially join the APC. The legacy group, which comprised a PDP member of its Board of Trustees (BOT), Charles Idahosa; two former Edo assembly speakers, Hon. Kabir Adjoto and Frank Okiye; PDP Women Leader, Aisosa Amandasu; governorship aspirants in the PDP primary; and hundreds of others, are aggrieved members led by the suspended PDP National Vice Chairman, Chief Dan Orbih.
Speaking on the Federal High Court judgement that reinstated Shaibu, the APC scribe said anyone saying that Shaibu was not the Deputy Governor of Edo State was acting in contempt of a court judgement and that, in due course, he would go to jail.
Also speaking, a former Edo State Governor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, said, “If they can cheat themselves and go to court, we will not allow them to cheat at the polls. It will be one man, one vote.”
On his part, Sen. Okpebholo lamented that the state had never been divided as it is currently.
In another development, the state’s chapter of the APC demanded the sack of the state’s Commissioner of Police (CP), Funsho Adegboye, over an attack on Sen. Okpebholo and reinstated Shaibu by hoodlums at the Benin airport.
It would be recalled that last Thursday, thugs invaded the Benin airport and attacked Shaibu and Okpebholo, who arrived in the state from Abuja, leading to the death of the police orderly attached to Okpebholo.
Addressing journalists, the Director of Media, APC Campaign Council, Prince Kassim Afegbua, alleged that the CP was complicit in the attack.
He said, “While the shootings were going on, the Commissioner of Police was on the ground at the Benin airport. He left through the entry gate instead of the exit gate, where the attack took place. He did nothing to repel the vicious attack that claimed the life of one of his officers.”
Responding, the CP exonerated himself of any wrongdoing and denied the claim that intelligence was shared with him ahead of the attack.
He said, “I had information that some people gathered at the airport, supporters, and I went in there because our goal is to maintain law and order. So, we were there, me and my men, and it was after these people left the airport that we learnt about the shooting that led to the death of the inspector.”
He further said that the investigation was ongoing and that those whose names had been mentioned would be arrested.
Meanwhile, the Edo State Government petitioned the Inspector General Police (IGP), accusing Shaibu and some chieftains of the APC of masterminding the crisis that led to the death of the police inspector.
In the petition signed by the state’s Solicitor General, Prof. Faith Osadolor, on behalf of the state’s Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, the government accused Shaibu of masterminding the violence.
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