As Political parties in the forthcoming Edo State governorship election gears up for campaign, a leader of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Senator Matthew Urhoghide, has expressed optimism that the new found party unity and cohesion among the key stakeholders will propel the party into victory.
The former governorship aspirant commended the high sense of maturity displaced by all the aspirants in accepting the outcome of the primaries that produced Senator Monday Okpebholo as the APC governorship candidate despite the crisis that trailed the party’s primaries where three aspirants laid claim to the APC’s ticket.
Urhoghide lamented that governance under the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP-led administration in last seven years plus has been transactional to the detriment of development in the state, and assured that the APC administration would reverse the trend when voted into power.
Speaking on the chances of the APC and how the party was able to close rank after the party, he said, “Let me first of all give God the glory for making it possible for us to conduct our governorship primaries and of course the eventual fallout. In a political party system, we must understand that a party is a platform, a pot-pourri and a different perspective. What we want is a candidate and eventually we were able to achieve it after considering the diverse interests of the people.
“Yes, somehow they were orchestrations that excluded some people, and that is the thing we are trying to settle. So far, we are happy and the kind of candidate we have will definitely elicit good governance if he tells you his story, you will know that he is not pretending and has seen life and God has been merciful to him. We are not afraid he will do well, not this one that has made our Edo State a transactional state, and that is what we are going to expose to our people.”
On APC Chances, “APC has the brightest chance, from demographics and for experience and what we have always seen in the distribution of votes across the senatorial districts, APC has over eighty percent chance of winning Edo North, 70% chance in Edo Central because they are beginning to see Akpakomiza as their own, he is more natural with them, even the language he speaks to them and our rural populace places premium on that because you want to represent them and he has things to show.
“If you come to Edo South, the battle ground, three of the seven local government areas are cosmopolitan and are a mixed multitude. Oredo has the highest voting population and I can assure you to a large extent by the time we campaign the ethnic group will tilt towards APC,” Urhoghide said.
