Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, has pleaded with the people of Edo State to re-elect the incumbent governor, Godwin Obaseki, in the forthcoming governorship election because he resisted Godfatherism in the state.
Wike made the appeal during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, on Tuesday, August 4, 2020.
The governor believes his Edo counterpart has earned the confidence of the people by resisting what he called ‘godfatherism’ in the state.
His words: “The mere fact that Obaseki resisted this godfatherism should be the one reason Edo people should vote for him. There are so many things about this election; it has nothing to do with Obaseki like I said.”
He added, “First of all, Edo people, will you continue to allow godfatherism? Is it not an opportunity to end this godfatherism?
“You wake up in the morning and you tell Edo people something, in the night you call the same Edo people and say ‘what I said in the morning, I didn’t mean it’; how do we now know the one that you meant?”
Wike also accused the former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, of enslaving the people of the state.
According to him, this led to the disagreement between Godwin Obaseki and his predecessor and the subsequent defection of the governor to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) where he emerged the party’s candidate in the election.
An easy to win election
The Rivers governor stressed that his Edo counterpart had sometimes said that he was “a governor but not a governor”.
He alleged that every appointment in Obaseki’s administration was done by Oshiomhole until the Edo governor took the decision to resist such.
Wike also assured that the forthcoming election would be easy to win by the PDP as a result of the previous comments made by Oshiomhole about the party’s candidate.
He said, “If there is one election I think that should be easy to win, I think it is the Edo election.
“It is very simple and why it is very simple is that this is to test whether Nigerians love themselves or not; this will show whether Edo people love themselves or not.
“Four years ago, the former national chairman of the APC said of everything he has achieved, that it is of the brainbox of the PDP candidate, Obaseki; it is clear, he said so.
“The same man said the PDP candidate in the 2016 election was not electable, why was he not electable? Because he said (I didn’t say, I am only quoting what Oshiomhole said), that young man, you can’t trust him with money. The same man who you cannot give an appointment to trust him with money is the same man you are telling Edo people, ‘we can trust him with Edo people’s money,” Wike added.
However, Oshiomhole has repeatedly denied the allegations and sought support for Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the APC candidate in the poll.