• Friday, March 29, 2024
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Edo 2020: Obaseki calls for peaceful election

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Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, has called on the international community, the Federal Government, the media and well-meaning Nigerians to prevail on the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) to allow peace reign before, during and after the September 19 governorship election in the state.

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Obaseki made the call during an interactive session with journalists in Benin City.

“We will continue to pray, appeal to the media and international community to please prevail on the opposition party to allow peace reign in the land. Let Edo people be and let them be able to express themselves,” Obaseki said.

“I hope you will join well-meaning Nigerians to make that plea that we want safe Edo. We are government, we cannot be the one killing our people and if they want to come into government, they must understand what the people need and see if they can persuade them to vote for them on the 19th of September,” he said.

The governor, who noted that with peaceful environment, the opposition party cannot win the governorship, alleged that the APC’s only strategy was to wage war of massive and vicious propaganda.

He also alleged that the opposition party wants to put fear, intimidate and scare people from coming out to exercise their franchise during the election.

He noted that the opposition would not succeed with their plans, saying the people of the state are now more conscious of what is going in the state than before.

He said the APC behaves lawlessly because they believe that nothing will happen and that if the state government and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) dare to challenge them, they will put the state into anarchy and postpone the election.

He said if the election is postponed, APC has nothing to lose because the party is already down.

He, however, said his administration will continue to pay salaries to workers, pensioners, as well as execute projects across the state.

“I refused to follow the status quo, we also curbed waste. If we had not changed the way people see governance or put some measures in place, I don’t know how we would have coped amid COVID-19.

“Governance today is difficult, because of people’s demand, but despite that we remain focused on our priority,” he said.

“Change is difficult but we have to do it because maintaining the status quo has not taken us anywhere hence I have to change it,” Obaseki added.