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Chairman, Edo State Media Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship election, Mr John Mayaki, has described as “inane, puerile and negligible” the claims by Rivers state governor, Nyesom Wike, that APC plans to postpone and rig the upcoming Edo elections.
Mayaki said Wike, like his counterpart in Edo state, Governor Godwin Obaseki, should focus on the claims against him of alleged violation of human rights.
In a statement, Mayaki said, “I do not know if Mr Wike manufactures these tales himself or if he has a team of lazy children’s books writers who manufacture these claims. I am torn between answering him seriously or stepping down to match his humour.
“To start with, let him provide proof for anything he said. He cannot. How does the party that is not in power plan to ouster the police in Edo state? He meant to accuse us, but ended up insulting the Nigeria police force. I think they need to address the disrespectful and sickening way he spoke about them. This is not the first time that the governor has demonstrated pedestrian restrain in his words.”
Going further, the APC spokesman observed that, “The inane speculation cannot hold water, as we stand to gain no further advantage should Mr Obaseki leave office.
“Already, the state is against the man; you can tell from how there are more chickens in a poor farmer’s poultry than there were people at the PDP rally in Edo North. The sun has gone down on his government and the moon has refused to shine. These puerile narratives containing negligible fabrications cannot save their campaign.
“In fact, going by the dramatic way Mr Wike has conducted himself, especially during the COVID-19 lockdown, would it be incorrect to point out that Mr Wike talks shop better than he campaigns? He definitely does it better than he governs. He needs to know that their focus now should be fabricating a manifesto that can win them at least a third of the votes in Edo state. Our SIMPLE agenda will definitely get us all of the votes otherwise.”
Meanwhile, he added that the APC is more worried about the election postponement because the party knows that Mr Obaseki is capable of “every thuggish, violent trick in the book” and that a postponement of the election can only mean that the governor is “up to his old tricks again.”
“We know that the governor is not incapable of playing dirty. He has even done it in times past. We just hope he is not planning to deploy violence and transfer the blame to us. We may not have guns and thugs, but we have the truth, and we will wield it and bring him down,” he said.
