Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State, on Tuesday, took the National Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, to the cleaners.
Obaseki, who is the governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Saturday’s election, declared that Tinubu and other godfathers in APC would fail because Edo people have vowed to return him (Obaseki) for another term which will end in 2024.
The governor was reacting to claims made by Tinubu in a televised broadcast on Tuesday that Obaseki does not deserve a single vote in Saturday’s election, asking voters to reject him.
Obaseki, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, entitled ‘You can’t extend your political empire to our state – Edo Govt tells Tinubu’, boasted that Tinubu cannot extend his political empire from Lagos to Edo State, noting that “Edo people are determined to end godfatherism”.
The statement reads: “Our attention has been drawn to a television broadcast in which a former Lagos State Governor and chieftain of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, in his quest to extend his political dominance and empire to Edo State, decided to take over the role of Edo people to choose through the ballot who to govern them for the next four years.
“It has become obvious that the spirited fight which Edo people have put up against godfatherism has sent tremors beyond the shores of Edo to the likes of Tinubu, who has for years sustained a stranglehold on Lagos and other states in South-Western Nigeria, hence this desperate, last-ditch effort to rescue the unproductive political instrument, now popularly referred to as godfatherism, with which he has feathered his nest and built his political empire at the expense of the people.
“We call on all Edo people, friends of Nigeria and all lovers of democracy to disregard all the comments by Tinubu, as the allegations about the Edo State House of Assembly and other claims in the broadcast are completely false.
“Tinubu knows clearly that come September 19, when godfatherism would have been dismantled in Edo State, the people of Lagos may just have found the recipe and formula for removing the chokehold placed on their collective destinies for decades by Tinubu, hence the inciting television broadcast”.
Obaseki also described the allegation that he prevented the inauguration of lawmakers in the state as “false”.
