Aspirant absolves Oshiomhole from imposition as Osunbor returns form

Former Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives and governorship aspirant in the forthcoming gubernatorial elections in Edo State, Hon. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, has dismissed allegations that the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole has foisted one of the aspirants on his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The aspirant who was at the National secretariat of the party in Abuja last Friday to pick his Expression of Interest Form also noted that the party cannot afford to lose Edo State.

The governor had recently come under attacks from partisan interests, who accused him of publicly displaying preference for one of the aspirants, Godwin Obaseki.

His words: “Edo State cannot afford not to have an APC government not after the hellish things we went through before Oshiomhole got in.

“Gov. Oshiomhole has not anointed any candidate; otherwise there would have been no need for primaries. I am close enough to him, and if there is anything like that, I guess I would even be the anointed candidate.

“In the first year in office we would provide 50, 000 private sector jobs for the people and this we intend to do on a yearly basis for the next four years”, he stated.

According to him, Edo people do not have to wait for every four years to get a bag of salt and other food items from politicians, promising to make the people the driving force of his administration.

He also promised public-sector reforms in order to reposition it as the engine room of government. “The public service is to bring funds to government and not depleting the coffers as some agencies have been doing. Most of the agencies in Edo have the capacity to generate funds for government if they would truly execute or discharge their core mandate, and this is where reforms are necessary”, he said.

Also, former Edo State Governor, Professor Oserheimen Osunbor an APC governorship aspirant returned his nomination and expression of interest form on Friday reiterating his confidence in picking the party’s ticket to run as APC Flag bearer for the Edo Governorship contest.
Osunbor, who was at the party National Secretariat in Abuja to submit his nomination form in preparation for the party primaries coming up on June 18 said he cannot be intimidated by any aspirant.
On whether he is not threatened by the alleged anointed candidate of the governor, Godwin Obaseki Osunbor said: “No, he is not a threat, if he were a threat I won’t come to submit my nomination form”.
The former governor who was sacked by a court judgment in 2009 that gave Governor Adams Oshiomhole his first chance to be Edo State Governor added that politicking has been going on well and the familiar terrain he has thread in the past is smooth for him to run on again.
It would be recalled that Osunbor had earlier claimed that he is the most qualified aspirant among all the APC aspirants saying none of the contenders can stand his intimidating credentials.
The number of aspirants for the APC ticket in the state gubernatorial race is swelling by the day as a total of 12 persons have picked the APC nomination form so far.