Allow Peace to Reign, Obaseki Pleads with Political Actors

•Accuses APC of using federal might to intimidate voters

By Adibe Emenyonu

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has enjoined all political actors especially the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) to give peace a chance in the September 19 governorship election in the state.

He also accused them of wanting to use federal might subvert the will of the people in the election.

Obaseki who stated this at an interactive session with journalists, last night in Government House, Benin City, added that for him as governor of the state, he had no intention of killing anyone to remain in power.

However, he said if the opposition APC wants to take over, they should do so through a peaceful means.

His words: “We cannot be the ones killing our people. If they want to come into government, they (APC) must understand what the people want to see how they can persuade the people to believe them and vote for them on September 19.

“We will continue to plead with the Federal Government, as we do not have the police and security under our control, because they are all federal government’s agencies, and they have promised, as part of their intimidation tools, that they will use these federal government agencies to intimidate us and you can see it already.

“If we have a peaceful environment and go for an election today, they (the opposition politicians) do not have the confidence that they will win and succeed because they know where the sympathies of the people are. Rather than trying to persuade and win over people, as they do not have records to do so, their strategy is to first wage a war of massive and very vicious propaganda.
“Put fear, intimidation and scare people from coming out to exercise their franchise. By the grace of God, they will not succeed, because people are a lot more conscious of what is going on than they give them credit for.”
He also accused the APC in the state of total disregard for court orders and existing court pronouncements.

“There is a total disregard of Edo State’s court orders and existing court pronouncements and they are acting as if there is no law. They behave so lawlessly because they believe that nothing will happen and that if we even dare to challenge them, they will put the state into anarchy and postpone the election. They do not have anything to lose, because they are already down.

For us, we will continue to pray; we will continue to plead with all of you (journalists) and the international community to please plead with the opposition party to let peace reign in the land (Edo State). Let Edo people be.

Let them be able to express themselves. We want a safe Edo State,” Obaseki said.