Edo 2024: Group asks ex-governor, Prof Osunbor to re-contest

A group known as Better Edo Forum (BEF) has asked the former governor of Edo State, Professor Oserheimen Osunbor to contest the state’s governorship election slated for the third quarter of next year.

The group’s call came as various political and interest groups mount pressures on top Edo politicians within and outside the country to vie for the Dennis Osadebey Avenue Government House which will become vacant in the year 2024 as the incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki will be completing his second term in November next year.

While the governorship race is still some months away and the umpire, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), is yet to blow the whistle for the commencement of the race, a lot is going on underground to ensure that quality aspirants, especially from the Edo Central Senatorial District show interest, with many of the personalities already oiling their political bases and pieces of machinery.

The Better Edo Forum (BEF), a pressure group which has joined the political calculation, over the weekend, called on the former, Professor Osunbor, to publicly declare his intention to contest for the 2024 governorship race to succeed the PDP-led administration of Governor Godwin Obaseki.

The group in a statement made available to newsmen in Benin and endorsed by its State Coordinator and Secretary, Odion James and Osaro Idemudia respectively, said the professor of Law’s short spell as governor of the state witnessed massive development across the State.

The statement noted that the 18 months Osunbor governed the state saw massive road construction, school rehabilitation and several other projects that were aimed at transforming the sorry state of things at the time he took over the reign of Edo State.

The group also pointed out that the rule of law became the order of the day within the 18 months that Osunbor held sway as the governor.

According to the statement, “Osunbor can best be described as a workaholic who did everything humanly possible to change the fortune of our dear State from the very sorry state he met a badly govern State.

BEF said that the 2024 governorship election offered “yet another opportunity for the loyal, dedicated APC leader and former governor to deliver on his plans for the Edo people”.

“We saw him embarked on unprecedented massive roads construction across the three senatorial districts. Some of these roads exists as we speak.

“He also embarked on other projects that catalyse the state from it state of economy doldrums to that of prosperity the State has started to witness before the court judgement that put paid to his development strides.

“It is as a result of this that we, along with millions of Edolites, are calling on him, Prof Oserheimen Osunbor to declare interest to contest the 2024 governorship seat.

“As a group, we will support him in whatever capacity by mobilising human and material resources to see that this dream come to fruition.

“We know what he, Osunbor, is capable of and that is why we call him Mr Capacity. We want him to come and reenact the work he started and what Oshiomhole built on before the present administration took the state to the dark days”, the group reiterated.

It therefore appealed to the APC party leadership to adopt Osunbor as their consensus candidate to fly the party’s flag having shown and demonstrated strong capacity to change the fortune of the state when he held sway.

Professor Osunbor’s tenure asthe governor of Edo State, it would be recalled, was truncated on November 11 2008, by an Appeal Court judgement which upheld the earlier decision of an election tribunal that adjudged Comrade Adams Oshiomhole the winner of the governorship election in 2007.