From Tony Osauzo and Ighomuaye Lucky, Benin
The Edo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC), late Sunday evening, slammed the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over its criticisms of the Monday Okpebholo administration.
The Acting State Chairman of the party, Emperor Jarret Tenebe, while addressing journalists at the party’s secretariat late yesterday evening, said the PDP lacked today’s governance realities, explaining that the landmark projects Okpebholo has embarked upon, like the Ramat Park Flyover, which the PDP had criticised, were captured in the reviewed budget of 2024.
He condemned the public display of a call to violence by some chieftains of the PDP during the campaigns, saying it was enough to query their moral right to challenge the result of an election they expressed desperation to win.
“The ignoble and violent traits of PDP which they exhibited before, during and after the election are the signposts of imperialistic disposition which the Edo people shall never pray to experience again,” Tenebe said.
The APC Chairman stated that the call for violence even before the election resulted in “the killing of the police inspector attached to the now governor,” adding that the “PDP, still celebrating its failure, has now embarked on a self-destructive voyage to criticise the government of Distinguished Senator Monday Okpebholo that has surpassed the non-achievements of Governor Obaseki in eight years, having just been in office for a few days.”
Besides, Tenebe said the Edo State Chairman of the PDP, Dr Tony Azeigbemi, from the press conference he held a few days ago, only demonstrated that he has no knowledge of the implementation of the revised Appropriation Law 2024 of the State, saying, “the flyover bridge can be captured in the open-ended parenthesis of the budget which accommodates projects of implicit and urgent importance.”
“Edo people are now happy that a governor who understands their plights and is ready to tackle them head-on has come, and they now know that what the PDP government termed ‘impossible projects’, like the flyovers, are realisable by a government that is determined to work and not believe in MOUs which only existed on paper.”
Speaking on the PDP’s claim of an APC alleged attack on their secretariat, Tenebe said the allegation was a case the opposition party cannot substantiate.
“It is most disgusting for the PDP to ascribe the criminal destruction that happened in their moribund secretariat to the APC. While the APC government of His Excellency, Monday Okpebholo, condemned any act of criminal tendencies like the alleged destruction of the PDP secretariat, it must be stated without equivocation that the said alleged act has no bearing with the APC.”
He added that the allegation by the PDP that suspected APC members attacked the secretariat was a criminal allegation that must be proven beyond reasonable doubt. “Therefore, we require the PDP to substantiate their allegations with undisputed facts so that the allegations should not remain in the realm of suspicion which has no place in our criminal statutes.”
“The PDP must know that His Excellency, Distinguished Senator Monday Okpebholo, has put his hand on the plough and is ready to put Edo State on the map of progressives,” the APC said.
The party also frowned at the allegation by Azeigbemi that the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) BVAS (Bimodal Voter Accreditation System) was compromised for the September 21st governorship election.
The APC also took a swipe at PDP chieftain Osita Chidoka’s claim that BVAS and the electoral body were compromised during the Edo governorship election.
“We state unequivocally that there are two sets of BVAS machines in INEC office: the one legitimately used by INEC for the election and the manipulated machines that were smuggled into the office of INEC by the PDP.
“We therefore, now more than ever before, call on the security agencies to investigate where the PDP got the manipulated BVAS machines from, with which they are circulating fake results, since same have been acknowledged in the public space,” the party Chairman, Tenebe, said.
