The National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, has revealed that his party’s victory will be replicated in the forthcoming governorship election in Ondo state.
The former Kano state governor declared that the party will use the pattern of voting, successes and failures in different units to the APC institution, which is driven by knowledge, to ensure victory in Ondo state and the South-east zone.
Ganduje made the comments while closing the situation room set up at the party’s national secretariat to monitor the just concluded Edo governorship election.
According to Ganduje, APC was fired up to defeat the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, in Saturday’s election following the incendiary comment by Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki.
Senator Monday Okpebholo of APC polled 291,667 votes to defeat his closest challenger, Asue Ighodalo of the Peoples Democratic Party and his counterpart in the Labour Party, Olumide Akpata, who garnered 247,274 and 22,763 votes, respectively.
According to him, Edo State governor Godwin Obaseki has always been one of their own until the day he officially defected with their mandate to the PDP.
The APC national chairman said that in place of Obaseki’s do-or-die position, they insisted that their members and supporters should stick with the party’s ‘do-and-succeed’ ideology, which paid off at the end of the day.
He said: “This exercise (Edo governorship election) was a difficult one because we competed with several obstacles. We had a governor (Obaseki) who was one of our own before. We are children of the same father, but with different mothers, all engaged in the contests. So we didn’t part well. We parted in pieces, and then he left our party for the PDP, where the fight continued until yesterday (Sunday) when we were able to reclaim the power.
“Even before the election, one side is already overheating the polity. He (Obaseki) said it is a do-or-die election. But we said ‘No’; our own would be do-and-succeed. This is because if you die, who will introduce your successor? So we are here to thank all the stakeholders.
“From what happened, we are going to use the result, the pattern of voting, successes and failures in different units to the APC institution, which is driven by knowledge. The South East has five states. But two of them belong to our big party, the APC. So we will see how we can recover many States in our favour. I now formally close (the Edo election situation room).”
The former Kano governor appreciated the various security agencies who participated in the election for maintaining law and order.
He also thanked the APC governors in attendance for showing solidarity with the governor-elect and for their strong support while the poll lasted.
