VANGUARD
THE stage is set. Voters across the three senatorial districts, 18 local government areas, 192 wards, and 4,519 polling units of Edo State will troop out to elect a successor to Governor Godwin Obaseki.
No fewer than 2.249 million voters, who had collected their Permanent Voters Cards, PVCs, according to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, are eligible to make a pick from a crowd of 17 men and a woman, who will mount the Edo saddle on November 12 and steer the affairs of the state till 2028.
The new governor will bring to an end the eight-year era of Governor Obaseki.
In 2016, the politically little-known Obaseki was railroaded into office by his predecessor and now a senator, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who “coerced” virtually everybody to be part of the Obaseki project from the time the All Progressives Congress, APC, conducted its governorship primary and Oshiomhole dumped his loyal deputy, Dr Pius Odubu, to the election proper.
Throughout the campaign, Oshiomhole was at the forefront of the campaign as he bulldozed his way across the state. Obaseki’s speeches were not long. They were so brief that his main rival then, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who was the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, had to publicly complain that he did not know who he was contesting against between Oshiomhole and Obaseki.
The romance between Oshiomhole and Obaseki went sour and reached a peak ahead of the 2020 election when Oshiomhole as the National Chairman of the APC ensured that Obaseki was disqualified. Obaseki left the APC for the PDP which gladly received him and gave him its ticket. Obaseki went ahead to win the election. Edo people massively stood behind.
Three-horse race
Like the 2023 presidential election, today’s governorship poll has panned out as a three-horse race among PDP’s Dr Asue Ighodalo; APC’s Senator Monday Okpebhelo; and Labour Party, LP’s Mr. Olumide Akpata.
Save for Akpata who seems to be his own man, the other two candidates have strong grassroots politicians backing them.
Like outgoing Governor Obaseki, LP’s Akpata hails from Edo South, which has more registered voters than Edo North and Edo Central combined. Ighodalo and Okpebhelo are from Edo Central.
According to the INEC, Edo has 2.629,025 registered voters of which Edo South has1,526,699 followed by Edo North with 673,794 and Edo Central with 440,514.
