Edo 2024: APC Fires Back at Obaseki, Assures Peaceful Elections—Says “Edo People Are Safe, No Threat of Violence”

Ahead of Saturday’s governorship election in Edo State, the major opposition party, the All-Progressives Congress, (APC) says it would try everything withing its powers to ensure that the election is violence-free, stressing that the party is for peaceful polls. The APC stated emphatically that there would be “no bloodletting, violence and killing”, and that the election would be “peaceful, free, and fair”.

The assurance from the APC came against the backdrop of the threat issued by Governor Godwin Obaseki that the September 21 poll would be “do-or-die”. Addressing the Mega Rally of his Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday, Governor Obaseki had declared that “This is an existential threat, and this election is a do-or-die because if do we will die”.

However, in a statement on Sunday entitled ‘Edo People Won’t Die, Obaseki Will Die Alone’, signed by the Director of Media of the APC Governorship Campaign Council, Prince Kassim Afegbua, the party said “If Governor Obaseki chooses to die, he should go and die, but I can assure you that nobody will die. Edo people will not die. They will be alive to witness the political tsunami that will uproot him and his candidate on Saturday, 21st September.”

Insisting that “The blood of any Edo person is not worth the votes of the people”, Afegbua said the party, cherishes Edo people and voters.

The two-paragraph statement read:

“The reckless statement credited to Governor Obaseki is a further revelation of the desperation of the failed leadership in Edo State. Governor Obaseki’s plots and sub-plots are being exposed every day, and his level of frustration is making him make very reckless statements like a common gangster unbefitting of that office. Suddenly, the Governor is realising that his tenure is drawing to a close and the orgy of defeat is staring him in the face. He’s trying to clutch at flotsam to stay afloat in a voyage to nowhere, having stepped on toes and destroyed the very fabric of our homogeneous communalism. He’s seeing defeat all around him, and like Macbeth, struggling to visit mayhem on those who are not on the same page with him.

“The beauty of the whole process is that Edo people will not die; there will be no bloodletting, violence and killing. The election will be peaceful, free and fair. Governor Obaseki and his candidate will face the wrath of the people; he will be punished by their votes against his candidate. If Governor Obaseki chooses to die, he should go and die, but I can assure you that nobody will die. Edo people will not die. They will be alive to witness the political tsunami that will uproot him and his candidate on Saturday, 21st September. We at the APC are for peaceful polls. The blood of any Edo person is not worth the votes of the people. We cherish our Edo people and voters; hence we will try everything within our powers to ensure that the election is violence-free. Governor Obaseki had better brace up for the spectre of defeat instead of being lousy with unreason to scare Edo people. We are ready for Governor Obaseki eyeball for eyeball, toe to toe, in this onerous journey to rescue Edo state from evil political machinations”.