06-14-2020, 03:03 PM
Quote:Temidayo Akinsuyi, Lagos
Chief Charles Idahosa, a former Commissioner for Information and a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo state, has said Governor Godwin Obaseki will not chicken out from the governorship election despite his disqualification from the primaries by the APC screening committee last week.
Speaking in a chat with INDEPENDENT, Idahosa, who had always said he will dump the APC if Obaseki is denied reelection, said the governor will not take the ‘Ambode option’ as being suggested by some people because Edo is not Lagos.
It will be recalled that Akinwunmi Ambode, former Lagos state governor conceded defeat and congratulated his opponent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, current governor of Lagos state who was declared winner of the APC governorship primary held on October 2, 2018.
Ambode, who refused entreaties to switch allegiance to another political party to contest the election, also appealed to all members of the APC to remain one family and unite behind the candidate of the party so that the party could continue to move this state forward.
However, Idahosa said, Ambode bowed out of the race easily because he doesn’t control the APC structures in Lagos, which according to him, is under the firm grip of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the national leader of the party.
According to him, the scenario is different when compared to Edo state as Governor Obaseki controls all the party’s structures from state executive to ward level.
He said that was why Adams Oshiomhole, APC National Chairman did everything to bar him from contesting the primaries on the party’s platform.
“We’ve always said that Edo is not Lagos. What happened in Ambode’s case was that Ambode depended 100 percent on Tinubu. All the structures of the party are in Tinubu’s hands.
“That was why on the day of the primary, the Deputy Governor, SSG all of them ran away from Ambode and he lost woefully.
But in Edo state, the whole structure is under the control of Governor Godwin Obaseki. We control the whole 18 local governments unlike Ambode who doesn’t have any control but was waiting for Tinubu to do everything for him.
“We control the executive of the party and all other apparatus of the party. So, we are not afraid at all because the situation in Edo and Lagos are not similar. That is why you see Oshiomhole doing everything to stop the governor from contesting but it will fail,” he said.
https://www.independent.ng/edo-is-not-lagos-obaseki-wont-bow-out-like-ambode-idahosa/