The campaigns for the September 19 governorship election in Edo State are getting messier, as the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, on Saturday challenged Governor Godwin Obaseki to tell the public the whereabouts of his commissioner, who he said has remained in detention overseas, following his arrest last year in France for alleged money laundering.
Ize-Iyamu also berated Governor Obaseki, describing as irresponsible, Obaseki‘s decision to erect a digital billboard in the centre of Benin to continuously play the video of Governor Abdullahi Ganduje of Kano with a view to portraying him in bad light.
According to a statement on Saturday by the Director of Communication and Media of the Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation, Prince John Mayaki, it was hypocritical for Obaseki to embark on cheap blackmail when he could not account for his arrested and detained commissioner.
Read also: EDO: Ize-Iyamu pledges to respect INEC’s regulations on campaigns
He said: “It is obvious to everyone in Edo State and beyond now that the outgoing governor of Edo State (Obaseki) and his party of tax collectors have no record or achievements to campaign with.
“Otherwise, instead of wasting public fund on a lazy, indecorous and irresponsible attempt to smear the reputation of Kano governor, they would have seized the fraudulently-obtained opportunity of a digital billboard at the heart of the state’s capital to show the people of Edo State consequential matters like their achievements in office.
“It is nothing but hypocrisy and a lack of awareness, two traits that contributed to the failure of the Obaseki’s administration, for the governor to sanction such an irresponsible move when his own commissioner/best friend is still languishing in detention abroad, since his arrest in France.”
Opinions