Edo Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship aspirant, Kenneth Imasuagbon, has stated it would be a huge mistake for the party to hand over its ticket to Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Obaseki, he said, has failed to deliver quality governance and won’t serve the best of the party.
He also vowed he would never step down for the Governor, who defected to the PDP on Friday.
Imasuagbon, who lost the 2016 APC ticket to Obaseki, said: “It (Obaseki’s government) is a failed administration because he has not delivered on his promises.
“He promised 200,000 jobs but he has not been able to deliver them. Schools and hospitals are dilapidated.
“There are security concerns everywhere. The roads are still bad and some members of the House of Assembly have not been inaugurated.
“Nobody has the kind of appeal that I have. You can sample the opinions of Edo people about the ‘Rice Man.’ Ninety per cent of Edo people want me to become governor. But a few elite who are not up to 0.5 per cent are standing in my way.
“But God will remove them for me to pass. If they manipulate the results, they will face the consequence. I told Oshiomhole when he brought Obaseki in 2016 that God would fight for me.
“Where are the godson and the godfather today? The crisis within the APC between the governor and Oshiomhole is as a result of the injustice they did to me. Nemesis has caught up with them. If the PDP does the same, there will be consequences.”
On pressure on him to step down, he said: “The contemplation of me stepping down is preposterous. You can’t ask me to step down after my (political) struggle for the past 16 years.
“Why? How do I explain that to the people who laboured for me in the past 16 years? Even in the dream, I can’t have such a thought.
“Nobody should reach out to me. That is of no value to me. There is no advantage to him (Obaseki).
“Let there not be intimidation or any form of manipulation of the process by the leadership of the party at the national level.”