Ondo is not Edo -PDP dares APC ahead of guber poll

Like the Edo State election, the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State is likely to be a contest between the APC and the PDP.

The Peoples Democratic Party in Ondo State, South-west Nigeria, has reacted to the claim by the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) that the template deployed to win the 2024 governorship election in Edo State will be adopted to win the 16 November election in Ondo State.

APC National Chairman Abdullahi Ganduje made the comment while hosting members of the party’s situation room for the Edo election on Monday in Abuja, Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Mr Ganduje, while celebrating the victory of Monday Okpebholo, the APC candidate in the Edo governorship election, added that his party would continue to extend its influence in the South-east and South-west.

The APC candidate defeated the PDP’s Asue Ighodalo in a keenly contested race that had thrown up contentions about the credibility of the ballot.

PDP reacts

Reacting to Mr Ganduje’s comments, the PDP described the outcome of the Edo election of 21 September, as not only embarrassing but shameful.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Publicity Secretary of the PDP in the state, Kennedy Peretei, said he would like to remind the APC chairman that “Ondo State is not one of the states where the people can be intimidated or cowed”.

Mr Peretei wrote: “Our people are very enlightened and resilient. When the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) attempted to subvert the will of the people, the people proved to the Shagari government that they were different. That tradition has not died.

“Besides, the present democratic dispensation in which he is a beneficiary was watered with the blood of many Nigerians. It is advisable Ganduje does not go down into oblivion as one of its Undertakers.”

He further noted that Mr Gsnduje’s comments were coming when the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the Nigerian Police were yet to clear themselves of partisanship and complicity in the just concluded election.

He said his party believes that most Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora are beginning to lose hope in our hard-earned democracy “when major players like Ganduje openly allude to the fact that their votes will not count as long as men like him hold influential positions.”

“Ganduje’s vituperations were the surest confirmation that the election (Edo poll) was rigged. Instead of being sober for subverting the will of the people, Ganduje robbed salt on injury by saying that his party intends to control all the five South Eastern states,” Mr Peretei further stated.

He said the party salutes the courage of the people of Edo State for what he described as their remarkable performance in the election, “despite INEC’s flagrant disobedience of their own rules.”

The spokesperson said: “Everyone knows that most of the results announced at the state collation centre were fabricated, as the figures were different from those uploaded into the INEC Irev portal.

“The people of Edo State could never have elected a man who promised to bring ‘insecurity to Edo State’.

“Let Ganduje first give the ‘Edo Treatment’ to his people in Kano State, where he was humiliated by a relatively unknown New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in last year’s gubernatorial election.”

Ondo election
Like the Edo State election, the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo State is likely to be a contest between the APC and the PDP.

Incumbent governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa is flying the flag of the APC, while former deputy governor Agboola Ajayi is of the PDP.

Both parties have been engaging in intense campaigns across the nooks and crannies of the state ahead of the poll.