By Amb Tony Okonigene
“We will take Edo”. These were the exact words the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio used during the just concluded All Progressive Congress South-South delegates congress in Cross River State. His tone was declaratory with a note of finality. It did not hint at any intention of campaigning for votes. It was a declaration of war on the citizens of Edo State.
Senator Godswill Akpabio, the current Senate President of Nigeria, is a man known for his knack for rigging and shortchanging the will of his people. The story of his ascension to his present position is one that will occupy the dark pages of our history books when the stories of our democracy are told in the future. From the manipulations of the APC primaries that eventually produced him to his battles for the seat of the Senate President, all were mined by cheating, rigging and manipulations against the popular wishes of the people. That is why he could stand in front of a world press to declare that the APC WILL TAKE EDO STATE just as he took the Senate ticket and eventually the Senate President’s seat.
Akpabio knows that APC cannot win Edo State. The word TAKE was intentional but miscalculated. Here is a man that could not TAKE his state but wants to come and TAKE a sophisticated and well politically enlightened State like Edo State under a governor that has been battle-tested with a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, that many are of the view should have contested for the President of Nigeria. Akpabio will find Edo State too hot to toy with. If the intention was to impress the president, he should know his bounds.
A strong school of thought is of the opinion that Akpabio’s salvo was aimed at Senator Adams Oshiomole who is believed not to be happy with the imposition of Senator Monday Okpebholo on the party as its candidate by President Tinubu and Akpabio. There has been no love lost between Oshiomole and Akpabio since then. Akpabio has ensured that Oshiomole’s access to the President has been restricted. The Senate President was said to been informing Adams Oshiomole by his TAKE Edo statement, that whether he works for the party or not, the APC will TAKE Edo State by force. He wants Oshiomole to know that the APC does not trust him.
Meanwhile, the PDP has intensified its grassroots campaigns by engaging market people, artisans and other critical stakeholders. The candidate, Barr. Asue Ighodalo, is due to travel abroad for engagements with Edo citizens in diaspora who are regarded as critical stakeholders in the coming governorship elections.
