Ize-Iyamu: Edo Repleted With Rancour, Division, Insecurity Under Obaseki

Governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, says people of the state reserve the right to remove the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, if they feel he is not giving them what they want.

Speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Wednesday, Ize-Iyamu said the pace of development in the state under the incumbent was not what it should be.

Ize-Iyamu picked his nomination and expression of interest forms at the party’s national secretariat in Abuja earlier in the day after he emerged the consensus candidate of faction of the state chapter of the party purportedly loyal to Adams Oshiomhole, national chairman of the party.

He had contested as candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2016 but lost to Obaseki.

Ize-Iyamu defected to the APC in at the height of the imbroglio between Oshiomhole and the governor.

Also read: Edo 2020: Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Emerges APC Consensus Candidate

He said the fact that leaders and stakeholders in the state did not support Obaseki’s re-election bid did not mean they belonged to a faction led by the chairman.

Ize-Iyamu wondered why the incumbent was bringing God into his re-election aspirations after saying that his second term was non-negotiable.

“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 his 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.

“So, the so-called suggestion that the president said that they have the right of first refusal is false, there is no such statement, please.

“One thing I find wrong is trying to bring in the national chairman into it because of the leaders we have in Edo state are leaders who are strong in their own right and if they believe that the governorship of the party cannot be the birthright of the incumbent governor, it will be very wrong for anybody to suggest that they are doing belong to Adam’s Oshiomole’s faction. They brought him from nowhere before so they have a right to say that they want to look elsewhere.”

He said it was better for the party to change administration in Edo than lose the election.

“We mean well for our state. We are not looking for positions simply because we need to look for something to occupy us,” he said.

“Even though what we have now is an APC administration, we are not too happy with the pace of development.

“We are not happy with the rancour. We are not happy with the divisions. We are not happy with the insecurity and that cannot augur well for development. That was why we said our party cannot be changed, that it is better to change the incumbent and ensure that our party remains in office.”