EDO: March 28 Losses, Lessons For The Future

THE outcome of March 28 National Assembly elections in Edo State, particularly Edo South Senatorial District, where the All Progressives Congress (APC) lost the three House of Representatives seats so far concluded, to the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), came as a rude shock to party members and leaders.

In fact, more worrisome is that the APC also trails PDP in the senatorial race, leaving Orhionmwon Local Council and some polling units in Uhunwonde, Egor and Oredo councils, where elections were postponed, owing to late arrival of election materials, to decide the fate of the two candidates, Minority Whip of the House of Representatives, Samson Osagie, and former spokesman of the PDP in the state, Matthew Uroghide.

The deputy governor of the state, Dr. Pius Odubu, former minister of state for Works, who is now a chieftain of the APC, Chris Ogiemwonyi, and Edo State coordinator of the Goodluck re-election bid team, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, are all from Orihonmwon Council.

Edo South has the largest voting population in the state, accounting for more than half of the voting population, followed by Edo North and then Edo Central Senatorial districts.

Expectedly, APC won the three House of Representatives and Senatorial Seats in Edo North, where the governor, Adams Oshiomhole, hail from, and also, not surprisingly, lost the two House of Representatives seats and the Senate in Edo Central, which is home to the chairman, Board of Trustees (BoT) of the PDP, Chief Tony Anenih and Minister of Works, Mike Onolememen. Though, the APC candidate, Chief Francis Inegbeneki, said he would challenge the senatorial result that made Clifford Ordia the senator elect, as he alleged that there was rigging and thumb printing during the election.

With Oshiomhole’s popularity and the massive infrastructural development across the three senatorial districts, particularly Edo South, where the single largest project; the N30 billion Benin water storm project, the recent N57.8 billion gully erosion control and several others, and with the seeming ease with which the APC has been winning previous elections, analysts assumed that APC would sweep the state.

As a way of ensuring that the APC wins majority seats in the house come Saturday, The Guardian gathered that the APC has activated its various community campaign strategies and is also working to ensure victory.

The governor was said to have lashed out at council chairmen in Edo South and central, as he was said to have accused them of not doing enough to mobilise the people in the grassroots for the party.

However, the state chairman of PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, who led the party leaders and members in a marathon meeting to appraise the outcome of the Presidential polls, tasked candidates of the party, who emerged winners at the National Assembly to live above board as “to whom much is given, much is also expected.”

“It is not about Edo PDP, it is about Edo people, workers, civil servants, members of the judiciary, teachers, peasants, tax payers, the market women, deprived Okada riders and several other more including local government workers. It is about their future that we are talking about.

“We are determined to take back those who have shown commitment and trust in our leadership that we believe together we can rescue this state. Let nobody be deceived; we are going to come out next week Saturday in support of our candidates who are contesting the state House of Assembly. From our own projection, by the end of next Saturday’s election, Edo State PDP will have a minimum of 20 elected members of the state House of Assembly.”

Orbih said the party was prepared and ready to reinvent and re-establish party supremacy in the state party politics, stressing that “swim or sink; die or alive it is better not to submit to tyranny and dictatorship.”

The determination of the PDP to reclaim state may also not be unconnected TO the party’s loss at the centre in the Presidential election, if it must remain politically relevant in the scheme of things in the state.