Oshiomhole Cautions New Edo APC Leadership Against Extortion of Aspirants

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
Immediate past governor of Edo State and national chairmanship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole has cautioned the newly elected State Working Committee (SWC) of the party in Edo against extortion of aspirants that would be vying for various elective political positions in the state.

Oshiomhole who stated this in Benin City, when he met with the new leaders as part of his familiarisation with the party elected leadership, led by its chairman, Anselm Ojezua, said they must continue to sustain the confidence people have reposed in them with their election.
“We must be democratic, no imposition, we must manage our differences but at the end of the day we must have the capacity to speak with one voice.

“Very soon, you will be called upon as will be expected of leaders across the country to actively participate in the process of electing candidates on the platform of our party, we expect as you were elected at this level without anybody going to sell his father’s house or sell her mother’s shop because he or she wanted to contest for this office.

“We will expect you to work along with others to ensure that the process of electing delegates, electing candidates is not based on cash and carry, it has to be based on merit, based on competence and on commitment to delivering services to their various constituents not based on who bought a car for me or pay my bills.

“We want to be able to make a difference and clean up the system so that those elected will in turn have no excuse about their responsibilities to their constituencies”, he said.

Oshiomhole also commended Governor Godwin Obaseki for allowing members of the party in the state free hand to pick the leaders.
According to him, “I want to also acknowledge and appreciate the leadership that Governor Obaseki has provided because if he has believed that if he did not personally appoint political leaders, the security of his tenure cannot be guaranteed, we will not be here.

“I believe he understood that he doesn’t need to appoint ward executives, local government executives, state executives for him to feel safe. Rather, he understood that the safety in terms of security of tenure of his office and having a warm environment with people to work with simply required that he trust leaders at all levels to do their bits and then harvest all of that together. If he doesn’t have that understanding, perhaps, the story would have been different.”

Earlier, Ojezua told Oshiomhole that the success of the exercise was as a result of the cohesion he (Oshiomhole) instituted in the party.

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