Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has said that President Goodluck Jonathan would not get up to five percent of votes in the state at the 2015 presidential election because he had not justified the over 95 percent he got in 2011.
The governor spoke with journalists in Benin City, the Edo State capital as part of activities marking the 6th year anniversary of his inauguration as governor.
He said the people of the state will resist every move to capture the state as the people are wiser this time around. He noted that, while Jonathan had released over N2 billion to the states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Ecological Fund, but refused to give anything to the All Progressives Congress (APC) states.
He said he had gone to the president on several occasions on the devastating effects of erosion in the state without the president doing anything about it.
“In 2011, 95 per cent of the people in Edo State voted for the president, this coming election, he will not get five per cent because he has nothing to show for the votes that we gave him.
“When he gave N2 billon to PDP states from the National Ecological Fund, which is provided for under the constitution, funds that should be used for ecology whether soil erosion, wind erosion, desertification, among others, he gave to the PDP states where he lost the election in 2011, in Edo State where he won 95 per cent, he did not give us a dime.
“Yet we have written to the federal government under PDP, over and over to draw the attention to erosion problem in parts of the state, which has destroyed schools, homes, farmlands and others.
“Even the people of Auchi, led by their paramount ruler, the Otaru, have protested and blocked the Benin-Abuja highway to draw the attention of the federal government to the menace of the erosion that has consumed many homes and farmlands, yet that did not attract the attention of the president and I have raised it with him: our people voted for you why should you punish us. Must we be in PDP? Do we want a one party state in Nigeria?
“Edo people voted for a PDP presidency but what are we benefiting?
Nothing, just the resurfacing of Benin-Ofosu Road; that’s our reward for 15 years. So when the president said he will win Edo State, I was wondering. We will fight back because he will lose deposits here.
“The president’s choice of words for me was regrettable. No part of Nigeria should fall. So I am shocked by his choice of words. APC will be defeated in Bayelsa and Edo State, these states will not fall to PDP or APC but we will defeat them. We have to be wary of our language.
“The language of our president must not be violent; we mustn’t borrow military language in describing democratic issues,” the governor said.
On whether the APC would win the 2015 presidential election, the governor said the people of the state, who voted for Jonathan in 2011 because of his innocent look and his ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ campaign slogan, which he had long abandoned as a result of faulty advice from his aides, would not vote for the president.
Ejinwa Anthony says
In as much as am a total believer of oshomole but then how can you tell me that he released a whopping sum of 2billion from National Ecological Fund, which is provided for the constitution, funds that should be used for ecology whether soil erosion, wind erosion, desertification, among others, then you said it was released to pdp.Come are we ruled by the party or by a person, so if pdp are elected what is ment to be done won’t be carried out or the reverse for apc please let’s get over this pfp and apc syndrome