Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, a governorship aspirant under the platform of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State, said, on Wednesday, that the party would be making a grievous mistake to present Governor Godwin Obaseki for second term in office.
He said this just as about seven governorship aspirants reportedly stepped down for him.
Some of the aspirants include a former deputy governor of Edo State, Dr Pius Odubu; Chief Solomon Edebiri, Gen Charles Airhiavbere, Engr Chris Ogiemwonyi, Hon. Ehiozuwa Agbonayinma, Hon Saturday Uwuilekhue, Mr. Blessing Agbonmhere, and Prof. Ebegue Amadasun.
Ize-Iyamu, who spoke shortly after picking his Nomination and Expression of Interest Forms at the National Secretariat of APC in Abuja, claimed that the aspirants and some members of the APC in the House of Representatives, led by the Deputy Leader, Comrade Peter Akpatason, contributed the N22.5 million he used to purchase the forms.
Ize-Iyamu noted that he had tried to counsel Obaseki but agreed that he had the right to recontest.
He said;l, “We mean well for our state. We are not looking for positions simply because we need to look for something to occupy us. 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.”
He added, “In all the rifts in the party, I have not heard the National Chairman say anything against the governor. It has been one-way traffic. It has been the governor, his deputy and people in his government constantly and persistently abusing the National Chairman, who as a father has kept quiet.
“The governor has created a rift between himself and leaders of the party in Edo state because the people that put him there, he has dismissed them, used all kinds of negative adjectives to describe them. He has no relationship with them.”
According to the aspirant, the governor has a right to seek a second term but cannot say that it is not negotiable.
“It means you are saying that the party should not even sell forms to anybody and that Edo people do not have the discretion to choose who should be their governor. To say it is not negotiable is to rubbish the rest of us who also have a right to contest,” he said.
