Mixed reactions have continued to trail the emergence of Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the forthcoming governorship election scheduled for September 19, 2020.
Ize-Iyamu, emerged the party’s standard-bearer in the last Monday governorship primary election, having polled a total of 27,838 votes to defeat Pius Odubu with 3,766 votes and Osaro Obaze with 2,744 votes.
Those who spoke to BusinessDay on phone on his emergence as the party’s candidate included Peter Aguele, the executive chairman of Esan South-East; Dan Orbih, the immediate past chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State and Samson Osagie, former minority leader in the House of Representatives.
Aguele said Ize-Iyamu as a non member of APC was not, abinitio, qualified to contest the primary election not to talk of being its candidate, noting that the APC candidate is not a match to governor Godwin Obaseki in any political contest.
“Ize-Iyamu is not a member of APC. So, how could he have emerged as APC governorship candidate; how do you become a candidate of a party when you are not a member of a political party?” he queried.
Continuing, he said, “though, I am no longer a member of APC, I can say Ize-Iyamu will not be able to match Governor Godwin Obaseki when it comes to election.”
But Orbih, who declined to comment on Ize-Iyamu’s candidature, opined that it was the choice of the party to elect who will represent it in an election.
“He is not a member of my party. It is only APC members that can talk. It is their choice and they are entitled to chose whoever they want”, he added.
Also reacting, Osagie described Ize-Iyamu’s candidacy as the best to happen to the party in the state, saying that the party’s governorship primary election in the state was the best in the history of governorship primary elections in the state as it was violence-free.
“Now the party has a candidate in the person of Osagie Ize-iyamu, with the very kind cooperation of other aspirants. This is one primary election where a party candidate emerged without rancour.
“This is the first time I am seeing a primary election without crisis. For the very committed APC members, we urge them to remain resolute and reach out to everybody, including PDP followers.
“This is a period of grace we have given to PDP to celebrate and taste government , that seat is for the APC. And we decided to take that risk for the overall interest and future sustainability of our party”,he stated.
He, however, called on all party members to be committed and united more than ever before, to reclaim the state to APC.
