“Don’t vote PDP, vote APC,” NCP urges Edolites

The National Conscience Party (NCP) in Edo State has advised the state’s citizens to vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC) other than the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming State Assembly Election on Saturday, March 18, 2023.

In a circular titled ‘A clarion call on Edolites in the face of the upcoming House of Assembly Election on Saturday,  March 18, 2023’, signed and made available to the media by the Deputy National Chairman of NCP (South-South), Pastor Peters Omoragbon, the group accused Governor Obaseki of committing more than 50 sins.

Omoragbon accused Governor Obaseki of failing in his service to the people who voted him in after they “perceived [Obaseki] to be victimized by the then-prevailing APC.”

The NCP said it is critical of how Obaseki eventually won the election and allegedly functioned as a cabal with his Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu and Secretary to the State Government, Osarodion Ogie.

The NCP labelled the public officials as the three musketeers.

The group accused the Obaseki government of crippling the Edo state House of Assembly by working with only nine out of a 24-member House.

“The [House’s] function was to rubber-stamp all ‘opinions’ of the three musketeers which were being confused for bills,” the NCP alleged.

The NCP said that while there are multiple problems with the Obaseki administration, the non-accountability of the 13 per cent derivation paid to Edo state by the Federal Government is paramount.

“He cannot sweep under the carpet [the need to] account for Edo State’s share of the refund of the 13% derivation funds and other related ones paid to the nine Southern Oil Producing States by President Buhari Administration,” the NCP stated.

The group opposed Obaseki’s efforts to campaign for his party members in the upcoming elections.

The NCP accused the governor of trying to get the people of Edo state to vote for people they labelled as “cronies,” into the Edo State House of Assembly. 

One of the local politicians mentioned is one simply identified as Ematon (which translates to ‘Iron’).

The NCP said he had suddenly become humble and begun begging for votes while accusing him of not respecting the legitimate rights of Edolites who he had allegedly been victimising.

The group protested Obaseki’s late-timed supply of electricity transformers to some communities on the eve of the election and the grading of some roads in several towns and villages in the state about the same period as well.

The NCP wrote the governor’s effort as being forced by his [party’s] loss in the Presidential and National Assembly elections that were held on February 25, 2023.

The group accused Obaseki of taking the House of Assembly election coming up on March 18, 2023, as a do-or-die affair.

The NCP decried the governor’s efforts to reach out to Christian and Muslim religious bodies for discussion and appoint appointments several people as senior special assistants and aides as desperate.

Furthermore, the NCP recommended to the people of Edo state the need to have a vibrant state House of Assembly which will be occupied by “cerebral, independently-minded and true representatives of their constituents who certainly should not be the cronies of Governor Obaseki.”

Closing off, the NCP urged the citizens of Edo state to come out in their numbers on March 18 to vote mainly for candidates from the opposition political parties, especially the APC.