The Edo State House of Assembly Deputy Speaker, Hon Yekini Idiaye led 4 other legislators on Monday to endorse the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, in the September 19 Edo Governorship elections.
Apart from Hon Idiaye (APC Akoko-Edo constituency I), the other legislators are Hon Emmanuel Agbaje (APC Akoko-Edo II constituency), Hon Nosayaba Okunbor (Orhionmwon East constituency), Hon Dumez Ugiagbe (Ovia Northeast I constituency) and Hon Vincent Uwadiae (Ovia Northeast constituency II).
This brings the number of lawmakers to 17, of Edo APC members of house of assembly who have chosen to remain in their party, the APC.
Addressing the lawmakers, Pastor Ize-Iyamu lamented the disgraceful end to which the Governor Obaseki regime which claims popular support has come, with the daily abandonment of his government by civil commissioners, chairmen of Boards and appointees.
He said,it is lamentable that Governor Obaseki who assaulted democracy by inaugurating only 5 out of 24 elected APC members as legislators in the Edo assembly at 9.45pm, in the last one year succeeded in depriving over fifty percent of Edo people representation in the legislature.
He said even Oredo the seat of the State government and the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II were denied representation as the governor thrives on illegalities with such a disabled legislature claiming to be making laws for him.
He commended the lawmakers who for their steadfastness in choosing to remain in the APC on which platform they got elected to the Edo Assembly, assuring them that his Manifesto of Hope, Simple Agenda will be implemented in every part of the state when he gets elected.
Hon Idiaye, who was for two years the
Water Resources and Energy Commissioner to Governor Obaseki before he was elected into the assembly in 2019 said that the Akoko-Edo people who elected him and his colleague, Hon Emmanuel Agbaje into the Edo Assembly did so on the platform of the APC hence it would be foolhardy for them to dump the party for any other party.He said, ” I was elected on the platform of the APC and I have made it clear and I have told the whole world that I started my political career on the APC and I have no reason to defect to any political party”.
On his part, Hon Agbaje said that in the APC candidate, Edo state has a man of his words with impeccable character and good pedigree who deserves the support of all party members and the people of state to move Edo forward.
In his words, “…there are clear reasons why we have decided to stand with our party, the APC and not make the mistake of dumping our party. What would have appeared to be our problem have already left us and we are happy about that”.
For Nosayaba Okunbor, the decision to support the APC candidate is due to the fact that Governor Obaseki who defected to the PDP has done nothing to bring the dividends of democracy such as roads to parts of the state like Orhionmwon, his constituency for the four years he has been in office.
He said, ” we believe in party supremacy. APC is a party that can be reckoned with any day any time and my experiences in the last five years is enough for me to know what is good or bad”.#
