Salihu Lukman Urges Adams Oshiomhole To Exercise Restraint Over Edo Election

The Director General of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF), Dr. Salihu Lukman, has admonished former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, to guard against any action that would lead to anarchy in Edo State.

Lukman, in a statement, regretted that Oshiomhole was conducting himself in a manner that suggests the Edo State governorship election was an extension of his personal battle with the state Governor, Godwin Obaseki.

The APC chieftain enjoined Oshiomhole to take the backseat and play the role of a facilitator in the mould of the national leader of the party, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

He expressed fears that Oshiomhole’s conduct could jeopardise the chances of the APC in the governorship polls, saying it behooves the APC leadership to wade in and stop the ugly trend that has been portraying the party in a bad light.

His words: “The APC campaign is personalised around Oshiomhole. The candidate of the party, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is an onlooker. We need to appeal to Oshiomhole to ‘calm down’. This campaign is not about his person. More importantly, we need to stress the point that part of the political vision of any progressive is that once elected into government, we commit ourselves to issues of agricultural development, jobs creation, education, health, infrastructural development, poverty eradication and rapid technological development.

APC has ruled Edo State since the time of Oshiomhole as governor of the state. Up to today, whatever achievement Edo State experienced under Obaseki, between 2016 and now, APC must own it, just like we should be able to accept some of the setbacks. Anything Obaseki is able to achieve must be credited to APC as a party.

“Our Edo campaign should be able raise the awareness of Edo people that had Obaseki been in PDP, it would have been impossible for him to record any achievement. Based on the personalised way the APC Edo State campaign is being carried out, PDP all of a sudden is coming out very strongly to campaign for votes.

If the Edo State APC campaign is to go ahead this way, when APC wins the election, who will run the affairs of the state as governor? Is it Oshiomhole or Pastor Ize-Iyamu? If our party wants Edo people to vote for our candidate, Ize-Iyamu must be very visible and be seen as the face of the campaign.”