By Adesina Soyooye
Defeated Governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, has, reportedly, finally conceded defeat, and congratulated the winner, incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki, and candidate of the PDP.
Ize-Iyamu, allegedly, took this step after a meeting with the APC Interim National Chairman, Governor Bunu of Yobe State, on Wednesday in Abuja.
In a television broadcast, Wednesday night, he allegedly called Obaseki his brother from one family, and said brothers disagree to make up.
But many people say he insulted Obaseki by begging him to return to the APC, where says Obaseki is a leader, “unlike his new party, the PDP, where he will never be a leader,” urging him not to make “the mistake he made when he left” for the PDP before the 2016 elections.
But in a statement Thursday morning, Ize -Iyamu denied that he ever asked Obaseki to return to the APC.
A spokesman for the Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu Campaign Organisation, John Mayaki, in a statement on his behalf said that the reports that his principal asked Governor Godwin Obaseki to return to APC are false.
Mayaki said that such reporting was a continuation of the media’s lack of news verification before publication.
Some news media had earlier reported that Ize-Iyamu, in a television broadcast on Wednesday, made the appeal on Wednesday.
But Mayaki said his boss was yet to address the press since the election results were announced by the Independent National Electoral Commission on Sunday.
The video being referenced, he revealed was broadcast three months ago.
“We warned several times that the media should beware of fabrications from Obaseki and the PDP camp, but they did not listen,”
“That is why they have reported that the election was free and fair, and that is why they have said our candidate appealed to Obaseki to come back to APC.
“The video in reference is from three months ago, not after the election but doctored by Governor Obaseki media handlers to seek undue legitimacy.”
“Pastor Ize-Iyamu was reported in the stories as speaking from Abuja, but it was the Benin reporters that covered the story. Were the reporters transported to Abuja? Do these media agencies actually believe the stories they carry? Obaseki and the PDP has a way of leaking false news to the media and the media has to be sensitive and professional in receiving these news,” he said.However, in the alleged doctored television broadcast, Ize-Iyamu was quoted as saying: “We are going to talk to everybody. We are going to bring everybody back. I want to salute my brother, the Governor. I will like to appeal to him to return to the party.
“In every family we have disagreement. Let it not be said that it was this disagreement that pushed him out.
“I made that mistake before, and I have come to realise it was a grievous error, and I will not like him, as a senior brother, to make the same mistake.
“I will like to appeal to him to set aside his anger and come back. In APC, he is recognised as a leader, and it will be difficult for him to be recognised as a leader in the new party he is going.”
But Obaseki has dismissed such thoughts and speculations which have been making the rounds, especially, since his victory over the candidate of his former party, as immoral
Obaseki was denied a second term ticket by his party the APC. He joined the PDP, thereafter, and roundly won. He is currently on a thank you visit to the Governors of the South-south States who, he said, backed him to the hilt, and propelled him to victory.
