A group, under the aegis of Concerned Esan Indigenes for Good Governance, on Sunday declared that a report, purportedly from General Cecil Esekhaigbe should be disregarded, noting that it does not reflect the will of the people of Edo Central.
This was contained in a statement issued and signed by its convener, Monday Isibor.
The statement reads, “Concerned about the high number of governorship aspirants from Edo Central Senatorial District (Esan Land) some groups and individuals have, for months now, been appealing that some aspirants should step down in favour of stronger aspirants.
“This is in order to boost the chances of Esan persons getting their respective political party ticket and emerging as governor in 2024. Presumably to this end, General Cecil Esekhaigbe (Rtd), who is the leader of APC Edo Central, convened a screening exercise on 30th and 31st October in Abuja.
“At the end of the exercise, he promised to communicate the decision to the aspirants but surprisingly, the following morning the media was awash with conflicting lists of the report of the screening exercise.
“Initially, the General issued a disclaimer but when he eventually released his report about three weeks later, it more or less tallied with a list that had been in circulation but which he denied.”
According to the statement, the list contained six names in the following order: (1. Rt. Hon. Festus Ebea, (2. Senator Monday Okpebholo, (3. Col. David Imuse Rtd, (4. Hon. Victor Eboigbe, (5. Rt. Hon. Thomas Okosun, (6. Senator (Prof.) Oserheimen Osunbor.
“At a meeting he convened in Benin on Sunday 26 November 2023, he further reduced the number to three which he read out in his order of ranking, namely: (1. Hon. Festus Ebea, (2. Senator Monday Okpebholo, and (3. Col. David Imuse (Rtd).”
The statement, however, urged the public to disregard the report, describing it as a waste of time. It added that the report was handed down to a selected stakeholders invited to the meeting in Benin on November 26th.
“By virtue of the APC Guidelines for the Nomination of Candidates, the Constitution of the All Progressives Congress, the Electoral Act and the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Gen. Cecil lacks the power to screen aspirants, much less disqualify anyone.
“General Cecil has up till now failed to explain the criteria he used for the screening which made Hon. Festus Ebea, a former Deputy Speaker, to defeat Hon. Thomas Okosun, a former Speaker, former Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of Nigeria and former State Chairman of ACN.
“The same Hon. Ebea was rated higher than Prof. Osunbor, a respected national figure, a First-Class scholar, Professor of Law, two-term Senator and past governor of Edo State.
“In like manner, Sen. Monday Okpebholo who has spent only five months in the Senate was ranked second, beating Osunbor to sixth position. The question on everyone’s lips is how did the committee arrive at this bizarre result?
“The good people of Edo State deserve to be commended for the consensus which has emerged that the governorship should rotate to Edo Central this time,” the statement added.
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