The Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, on Saturday November 30, 2024, raised alarm over an orchestrated plan by his predecessor, Godwin Obaseki and some forces within the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to stampede and arm-twist the Judiciary in the ongoing legal battle over the outcome of the Edo State Gubernatorial polls.
The accusation is coming on the heels of the blank condemnation of the polls and its outcome by the Former Minister of Aviation and erstwhile PDP Chieftain, Osita Chidoka .
On a Channel Television’s programme on Friday November 29, ,the former President Goodluck Jonathan’s Minister, under the auspices of his non Governmental organization, Athena Centre presented a damning report on the Edo Governorship election.
According to him, there are overwhelming evidences suggesting that the Prof Mahmoud Yakubu-led Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, heavily manipulated the electoral process in favour of the All Progressive Congress, APC.
To this end, Chidoka, who on same Friday, announced his exit from the PDP, as well as a temporary break from active partisan politics, insisted that the election result. cannot stand .
“The evidence of systemic rigging observed in the election is so substantial that we think this election should not be allowed to stand. If this stands, then there will be no elections in 2027”, Chidoka noted.
A statement from Fred Itua ,the Media Aide to the Edo State Governor, however, described Chidoka’s sweeping condemnation of the polls as a rehearsal of the PDP script to blackmail and intimidate the judiciary into up- turning the popular will of the people.
According to him, such barefaced bullying tactics as exhibited by the former Aviation Minister is primarily targeted at circumventing the electoral will of the Edo State people.
The Governor’s media assistant accused the PDP, Chidoka and his Athena Centre of indulging in armchair analysis of events before ,during and after the September 21, 2024?, gubernatorial polls in Edo State .
Itua informed that throughout the election, PDP chieftains and their sponsored observers were holed up at the Government House, never bothered to carry out any field study, only to begin to churn out cooked up figures.
“First, the factional chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party in Edo state, is blind to the glaring reality that the party was spurned by Edo people in the last Governorship election because of their weakness.
“Overlooking its messy and divided house, the party is shopping for non-existent evidence to upturn the popular will of the people at the Tribunal.
“What exactly is the intention and or benefit of orchestrating a media trial as Mr Chidoka has done? It amounts to deliberate ambush.
“Even though the PDP and its hatchet man understand that discussing an issue that is sub- judicial is wrong, they are yet unrelenting in their shambolic plot to supplant facts with concoctions with the hope of arriving at their premeditated end .
“This case is already in Court and Tribunal, and it needs be allowed to run its full course without inhibitions.
“Thankfully, Courts do not pander to concoctions, prevarication, sentiments, red-herrings contradictions and orchestrations, but evidence and facts.
“We are hopeful that the Judiciary will remain firm in the face of this blackmail, intimidation, and orchestrated media attacks.
“The recent attempt by the PDP and her serial defector, Osita Chidoka, to arm-twist logic and employ demagoguery to whip up sentiments all-together, amounts to the last cry of a bull as the butcher’s knife serrates its chord and nothing more”, the Edo Government statement reads in part .
Governor Okpebholo, the statement warns, will neither be intimidated, nor blackmailed into jettisoning his decision to recover every kobo and Edo state asset wrongfully appropriated by officials of the immediate past adminstration.
The statement revealed that the Edo State Government is very aware that the recent decision by the Governor to set up a panel to recover all stolen assets has unsettled the Immediate past adminstration and PDP in the State .
“In the coming days, more revelations about the financial heist, contract scam, abuse of power and destruction of Edo State orchestrated by the Obaseki-led administration will be made known to Edo people” Itua stated.
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