The director of operations, Edo North of the Asue/Ogie Campaign Management Council, Hon Jimoh Ijegbai, has ruled out insinuations in some quarters that results of the election would be written using ‘federal might’ and not allowing the people’s choice to prevail.
In a chat with journalists in Benin City, Ijegbai said the PDP was campaigning and meeting the people to vote for its candidate whom he said is very sellable while some members of the APC were relying on ‘federal might’ and said President Bola Tinubu who possesses reputable democratic credentials would not allow that to happen under his watch.
According to him, democracy has come to stay in Nigeria. As a former governor of the state and now a senator, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole won elections in the state while in opposition to the federal government. He has also been an advocate of free and fair elections and, therefore, cannot be party to such an arrangement.
He said; “The President Tinubu that I know, who was among those who fought for democracy, who fought the military to ensure that Nigeria regains democracy, we got it and he was a beneficiary, he was the governor of Lagos State and today fate has thrown him up as the president of Nigeria.
“Don’t also forget that during the time of Sen. Oshiomhole as governor of state, it was late Musa Yar’Adua that was president and then President Goodluck Jonathan, there was credible election free and fair during his second term. Oshiomhole is the mantra of one man one vote, I don’t see in 2024 how one person can sit down and say we are going to write the result.
“Eternal Vigilance is ours in the PDP, we are going to ensure that from Day One, from the pre-process to the election proper and post-election, we are going to be very vigilant and see how a party that is not campaigning, how a party that has no credible and sellable candidate will come out to say we are going to write results.
“All I know is that right from the unit level, which is the base of the pyramid in the electoral process we are going to be there and immediately the results are declared and announced and transmitted to the next level, we will follow it up. I do not know how anybody can think that you are not bringing materials to the field, you will just sit down and announce results? That is a recipe for a crisis and I don’t think that Tinubu will like his name to be soiled in 2024 over an election.
“The will of the people must prevail. Edo State is too enlightened for that and Nigeria has grown beyond that, technology has come to stay in our electoral process that no one person can sit down somewhere and just write results.
“I was council chairman under Oshiomhle and he made us understand that there is nothing like federal might, what you have is the local might, the people belong to a local government and they are from a state.”
