Some Chieftain of the All Progressive Congress, APC and stakeholders in Edo state, yesterday canvassed for the emergence of Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi as the party’s candidate and hinged their call on his track record and integrity.
While, a Chieftain of the party, Comrade Godwin Erahon, yesterday urged leadership of the party to elect a candidate with high integrity that can unite the party for progress and development of the state.
Special Adviser on Political Matter and former Adviser to late Gen Samuel Ogbemudia on Project Implemetation, Hon Emman Gold Idehen, noted that beside integrity, the state need a man with compassion that can feel the pains of the people.
Erhahon, who spoke in Benin City, ahead of build up to the party’s primary slated for June, 2020, also stated that as a leader of the party in the state, the APC must not make the mistake to hand the party’s Governorship ticket to an aspirant that belongs to a diabolical or cult group.
He however pointed out that the four frontline governorship aspirants seeking to unseat incumbent governor Godwin Obaseki are eminently qualify to even aspire to the highest political office in the Country.
Among the frontline Governorship aspirants are Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi, Dr Pius Odubu, Gen Charles Airhiavhere, (rtd) and Pastor Osagie Ize- Iyamu.
Erhahon said: Well am happy the people are gradually forgetting the incumbent governor. Obaseki attempted to be such a fast player that he scaled the goal post.
“We have four viable governorship aspirants of very which are former deputy governor, Pius Odubu, Gen Charles Airhiavhere, Engineer Chris Ogiemwonyi, and Pastor OsagIe Ize Iyamu.
“Incidentally, they are all my friends and I will tell you that all of them are well qualified to be President of this Country. As a leader of the party, my role is to see how we can broker a consensus among the four so that we can produce one of them”.
“All the aspirants are good. Imagine aspirant like Chris Ogiemwonyi , as a guru from the oil industry, he has affect the lives of so many people positively , he has shown that he is a patriot.
“I believe that God will lead us to choose the best among the four and also pray God to grant all the other aspirants maturity and Godliness to learn to give up for another because if all of them go the way we went in 2016, we may see smear campaign against one another.
“For the quality of the various aspirants, it is sad that this present administration has so divided the party and he has ruled with so many acrimony, hatred and bickering in such that the party is divided.
Idehen stated: “Another key factor in determining who gets the ticket again is compassion; you can have integrity but no compassion. You can be a productive person on earth but when you seek public elective positions you need to have compassion and empathize, hear, smell and touch. If you cannot do that, you don’t have business being in public office because at the end of it all if you cannot combine them and put smiles on people faces you have failed”
“So, Ogiemwonyi’s mission is to uplift the living standard of the people because this is something he has done in the past.
“He said people call him ‘Mr Integrity’ ‘Mr local content’, but he is more interested on how to impact on the lives of the people and this is in consonance with what he has done in the past and that is why he is seeking to serve as governor”.
“As somebody in the middle management level at NNPC, he saw the level of poverty in his community where he grew up he was propelled to build borehole in all the community haven encountered a village girl that was blind owing to bad water, he built skill acquisition centers , church , provided generating set all from his personal pocket”.