Edo 2024: Oshiomhole Endorses Okpebholo, APC Candidate Slams Obaseki Over ₦530bn Debt Crisis

Immediate past governor of Edo State and senator representing Edo North senatorial district, Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole, on Wednesday is sticking out his neck for the capacity of the governorship candidate of the All-Progressives Congress, APC, for the September 21 gubernatorial election in the state, Monday Okpebholo to deliver if elected governor.

At the flag-off of the APC campaign in Edo Central Senatorial district at Uromi, Esan North-East local government area of the state, the former national chairman of the APC said he believed in Okpebholo as a good candidate that would listen to the yearning of the people.

Oshiomhole said he was happy supporting Okpebholo because he had seen what he could do as a colleague and senator.

Addressing the rally, Okpebholo, who was accompanied by Oshiomhole, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, a former governorship candidate of the party, among other top party leaders, canvassed for the votes of the people he represents, asserting that the APC has solutions to the problems of the people.

Insisting that he’s the best man for the job because of his vast experience as a federal lawmaker, Okpebholo assured that if voted governor, he would change the narratives of governance for the betterment of the people.

Bemoaning the humongous debt profile of the state, which he put at over ₦573 billion from the ₦43 billion inherited from Oshiomhole, the governorship hopeful accused the Governor Godwin Obaseki-led government of unprecedented corruption.

Okpebholo therefore called on Edo people not to allow the alleged looting of public funds to continue with Obaseki’s third-term agenda through his godson, Asue Ighodalo.

According to Senator Okpebholo, “In Edo State, did you know the debt profile of the state at the moment is over ₦573 billion? That is what Edo State is owing now. During Adams Oshiomhole’s period, monthly allocation from the Federation Account was between ₦3.1 billion and ₦3.3 billion, but today, the allocation is around ₦11.1 billion, and the Edo State Government has nothing to show for it”.

While urging the electorate to use their permanent voter cards (PVCs) to punish the PDP and its candidate, Okpebholo said “On September 21, 2024, it is just about a month from now, we will punish them with our votes”.

Also speaking, Ize-Iyamu said the rally signaled good things to come – the end of the PDP in the state, and the government of Obaseki.

According to the former secretary to the state government, SSG, the Obaseki administration in which Asue Ighodalo was the Economic Adviser, has plunged the state into debt, adding that the Ambrose Alli University, (AAU) Ekpoma, is poorly funded as opposed to when Adams Oshiomhole was governor.