Edo: Tinubu, Oshiomhole quiet days after APC loss

The September 19, 2020 Edo State governorship election has come and gone but the embers of the episodic event continue to glow in the glade of public discourse.

Although 14 parties fielded candidates for the poll, the result of the election showed it was a two-horse race between the Peoples Democratic Party and the All Progressives Congress.

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, PDP candidate, Governor Godwin Obaseki, polled 307,955 votes to defeat his closest rival and APC candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who got 223,619 votes.

The electoral umpire on Sunday subsequently declared Obaseki as the winner of the keenly contested election. INEC also on Tuesday presented certificates of return to the re-elected governor and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, at INEC office in Aduwawa, Benin City, the state capital.

The President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has since congratulated Obaseki on his re-election. The APC national body has also conceded defeat and congratulated the opposition PDP and its candidate.

But while the congratulatory messages poured in for Obaseki and his party, nothing has been heard from the quarters of former National Chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole; and former Lagos State Governor, Bola Tinubu, who were active political actors during the electioneering process that preceded the election.

Tinubu, an APC chieftain, had also said Obaseki committed an impeachable offence in the heat of the crisis that rocked the Edo State House of Assembly weeks before the election.

On his part, Oshiomhole, who was Edo governor from 2008 to 2016, was instrumental to the emergence of Obaseki as his successor. The two, however, soon fell out and Obaseki, who was elected on APC platform in 2016, defected to the PDP on June 19, 2020, after being denied APC ticket owing to intra-party squabbles.

Oshiomhole during the build-up and politicking to the 2020 governorship election in the state had said he sold a bad product to the people of the state in 2016 when he campaigned for Obaseki.

Armed with a megaphone at a rally late July 2020, the former APC national chairman, who vigorously campaigned for Ize-Iyamu this time around, had gone on his knees and had asked his supporters to repeat a prayer after him.

“With our broom, we shall sweep him out. Together, we will bring your servant who is God-fearing, who will not repeat his mistakes and will complete the project of taking Edo to the next level. All these and many more we say in the mighty name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Punch