A former National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Adams Oshiomhole and the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) during the 2023 general election, Mr. Peter Obi, are leading governorship campaigns in Edo State to show the seriousness attached to the September 21 election, and for their standard-bearers to emerge victorious.

Some leaders of APC and LP, who spoke in confidence yesterday in Benin, disclosed that Oshiomhole and Obi, both former governors of Edo and Anambra states, knew that it would be a task to dislodge the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Government House in Benin.

The political leaders also noted that with PDP’s Governor Godwin Obaseki backing Dr. Asue Ighodalo to succeed him on November 12, Oshiomhole and Obi had to restrategise, to penetrate the grassroots in the 192 wards of Edo, “since every politics is local, and 16 political parties are participating in the crucial election.”

The ex-governors (Oshiomhole and Obi), over the weekend, were in Benin to mobilise support for Senator Monday Okpebholo, the representative of Edo Central Senatorial District and Olumide Akpata, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and inaugurated their governorship campaign councils.

Oshiomhole, a former President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), who represents Edo North Senatorial District, while speaking at APC’s state secretariat in Benin, at the inauguration of the state’s governorship campaign council, with 36 directorates, said peaceful and genuine change was needed in Edo, through the September 21 poll.

He said with the massive support and votes of Edo electorate, APC’s Okpebholo would emerge victorious and succeed Obaseki.

Oshiomhole, who is the chairman of the 264-member Edo APC’s campaign council, urged the members to ensure that they win their units, wards and local governments, during the poll, and insisted that Edo APC could not have had a better campaign team.

The former national chairman of APC said the party would win the governorship election in Edo democratically, without rigging, violence or any form of manipulation, and advised members of the party in the state to see themselves as members of the campaign council, while also canvassing for votes.