Edo 2024: Engage Edo People In Pidgin, Esan If You Cannot Speak English – Govt Advises Okpebholo

… As APC alerts FG to put Obaseki on security watch

By Simeon OSAJIE

Edo State government has urged the governorship candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the September 21 governorship election, Senator Monday Okpebholo to engage Edo people in his mother tongue, Esan or pidgin since he cannot speak in English anymore.

The9JaTREND reports that the State Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Osa Nehikhare who stated this during press briefing in Benin City today, noted that Edo people are wise and can’t be deceived by the diversionary tactics of the APC. They are interested in the candidate and want to hear him canvass his vision for the State.

According to him, it is not unexpected to see the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State resort to campaigns of calumny and mudslinging, peddling falsehoods and mistruths.

“The APC is reeling from the fact that they have a candidate, who has continued to inflict the party and its handlers with the pain of making up stories to confuse Edo people and distract them from the main issue, which is selling their vision and plans to the people of the State.

“One wonders why a party that has issued over 150 press statements in the last three months will have none addressing the vision of the party and its candidate and how they plan to implement the vision to better the lots of Edo people.

“The PDP Government in Edo State, led by Governor Godwin Obaseki, commits one billion monthly to provide food palliative to millions of residents, amid the suffering that the people of the State and Nigerians have been plunged into by the APC-led Federal Government as a result of the gross mismanagement of the economy. It is expected that the APC should share their plans on how to ameliorate the sufferings and hardship of the people rather than resort to their usual ramblings, lies and propaganda.”

Going further, Nehikhare noted: “Since September 2023, the Governor Obaseki-led state government has been offering free bus ride to Edo residents in the wake of the fuel subsidy removal by the APC-led Federal Government, which has plunged the people into untold hardship and suffering. It is on record that this programme since its launch has benefitted over six million Edo residents from the three senatorial districts of the State. We want to hear the plans of the APC and their mute candidate. Are they going to scrap or sustain the programme? What does the party envision in this regard?

“It is common knowledge that the Edo State Government has employed over 5,000 people into the service in the last five years. We want to know how many more people the APC and its mute candidate plan to employ or are they going to retrench employees to be able to pay the N70, 000 minimum wage which obviously only the PDP Government has plans for its sustainability?

“The Governor Godwin Obaseki-led Edo State Government has, from the first month in office, consistently paid workers and retirees their salaries and pensioners on or before 24th of every month. Are the APC and its candidate going to pay earlier or will take the State back to the era when pensioners wore black, protesting daily across major streets within the Benin metropolis in demand of their entitlements?

“It is rather surprising that the APC is calling on the Presidency to put Governor Obaseki on the watch list when there are obvious pictures and videos of APC members wielding sophisticated weapons in the presence of policemen, breaching public peace and unleashing mayhem on the people of the State, and are still walking free. Their names are not on any watch list and they have not been arrested and prosecuted. What an irony!”

Meanwhile, the Edo State chapter of the APC has urged Federal Government to put Governor Obaseki on security watch over an alleged threat to fuel crisis in the state.

This was contained in a press statement signed by Emperor Jarrett Tenebe Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) Chairman and made available to newsmen.

According to Jarrett, “In the wake of Governor Godwin Obaseki’s threat that he will burn down Nigeria, the All Progressives Congress (APC) wishes to alert the security agencies that, facts have emerged of an engagement between Obaseki and a section of Civil Society Group drawn from Edo State and cultists from neighboring states, with sole aim to recruit them for any protest that may be in the offing.

“The aim of his plan is to create anarchy in Edo State and the five other South-South States and blame the APC for the destructions that will follow the protest.”