ABUJA: Chairman of the National Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress APC for the Edo state Governorship Election, Gov. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje of Kano State has said the party would do everything possible to win the election, disclosing how the APC would place Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers state in an isolation centre and win the election before he recovers.
Noting that the campaign council is made of experienced politicians and young Turks, Ganduje said the APC understands the rigging tactics of the Peoples Democratic Party PDP and is ready to dismantle same.
The PDP had named Gov. Wike the Chairman of its Campaign Council for the elections.
However, speaking on Monday after the formal inauguration of the APC campaign team, Gov. Ganduje said the PDP had poached Gov. Godwin Obaseki because they needed access to the state treasury in order to prosecute the election.
Ganduje accused Gov. Obaseki of treachery, saying the APC made him and yet he decided to turn his back on the party.
He said; “First of all, seeing is believing, by looking at the composition of this Committee, you know that APC is ready for the election, you know that APC will make do everything possible to win this important election.
“The reason why I am saying that you know the composition of this Committee we have old war veterans in politics who are ready to do the work and we have young people who are just coming out from elections and are ready to go back into the processes of electioneering again. And we have all the horses who never missed their targets. So, we assure you, the composition of this campaign council is strong and we are ready to do the job.
“The main purpose of this committee is to provide enabling environment for all our party men and even non party men, members of the public to appreciate our party based on their conscience and based on their ideological belief that APC is the answer in Edo State. So, we assure you, we shall create an enabling environment for a peaceful election.
Isolation centre
“We know the opposition is planning to rig the election, we know their tactics, we know their methodology and we shall dismantle all their tactics to ensure that we win this election
“We know PDP made Wike their chairman but I assure you, we will isolate Wike in an isolation centre and before he recovers, the election is over. The PDP decided to accommodate our former Governor in Edo State not because they have anything in common, not because they share some feelings, but simply because he is managing the treasury of Edo State and they want him to use that treasury in order to win the election. But I assure you the people of Edo State are watching, they know that somebody who was assisted in 2016 to win an election, somebody who was given every cooperation to succeed in the governance of Edo State without doing much for the people, at the end of it, he has taken the treasury and now handed it over to PDP in order to win the election. The people of Edo State will not accept this treachery. The people of Edo State on the 19th September will come out en masse and vote APC.
“I am motivated, encouraged when I see the composition of the council comprising of the who is who in the APC, deputy Senate President, the former SGF, many former governors and my colleague governors. You can see that the campaign council is composed of both the young and the old. The young, who are veterans from political war college, who are used to door-to-door fight, who were, in fact, born in the field base of war and the smoke of guns do not deter such people who silently shoot and never miss their targets.
“Mr Chairman, I believe you know we will already succeed and I am happy with the just inaugurated reconciliation committee as well. We two will work together to ensure that there is complete synergy within the party. We are working with one voice so that we can eliminate the problems of anti-Party activities, sabotage, espionage. So that if there is full reconciliation, then we know we are working in unison and this is equally important.
Mr Chairman, the campaign council will work with the leadership of the party in Edo state so that we can understand the political trend of the field, and to know the areas of strength and weaknesses, areas that we have to take advantage and even areas of threats. We assure you that we will work to make everything possible to ensure that we succeed.
IP,“We assure you that we will work within the protocol of COVID 19 in Edo state, we assure you that we will work according to the rules of the nation and electoral laws and processes because many members of the committee were elected, others have managed elections at one time or the other, so it is not a new thing. We assure you of great success in Edo state”, he added.