Edo 2020: We took electorate for granted ― APC

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5 years ago

FILE: Phillip Shaibu voting during the Edo election.

A member of the All Progressives Congress (APC) Caretaker/ Extra Ordinary National Convention Committee, Ismail Ahmed has said the party lost weekend governorship election in Edo State because it took the electorate for granted.

Ahmed made the disclosure on Monday while giving a post mortem of the election in which the candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Governor Godwin Obaseki defeated his main rival and candidate of the APC, Pastor Ize-Iyamu.

Barrister Ahmed said the primary which produced Pastor Ize-Iyamu as the APC standard-bearer was poorly managed and created a lot of disaffection among the critical stakeholders in the party.

He said:” Remember we ran against an incumbent governor and everybody knows the history of Edo governorship primary and there were a lot of circumstances we could not explain.

“We thought we had covered the ground fully well but there was a blindside we didn’t see. But the party has not officially done a post-mortem which we intend to do this week: the National Assembly is very busy, we are going to call a post-mortem to know how far and how we find ourselves in this kind of situation.”

Appraising the chances of the APC ahead of the Ondo State governorship election slated for next month, the member of the APC national interim leadership admitted that the party chieftains were polarised into factions but maintained that aggrieved members have since agreed to work together as a political family to work for Governor Rotimi Akeredolu for a fresh mandate.

Ahmed who further noted that the APC performance in the last general elections was not encouraging, however, assured the party faithful that there were concerted efforts to ensure that it retained Ondo state.

“As we go to Ondo State, we know that APC did not win the Presidential election in Ondo State.

“So, Ondo is also going to be very dicey but the governor has done most of the reconciliation that he needed to do based on what the reconciliation committee recommended for him. We are not going to take anything for granted anymore, we are not going to be sitting on our oars again, we are going to go out and fight to make sure that we retain that state (Ondo).

“It is very disheartening for us as members of the party that for the first time since 2015, the party does not have a single representation in the South-South in terms of state, that is something I’m absolutely unhappy about.

“For the first time, our party was the only party that has representation in all the states, except PDP in 2003 when President Obasanjo wanted to contest. Because in 1999, PDP had no representation in the South-West but for the first time, the APC had representation in all the geo-political zones since 2015 but now we have lost it.

“We have to work hard to regain it even though we won the election fair and square in 2019, but that is something we can’t take for granted any longer.”

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