Okowa, Wike can't disrupt Edo poll, says Oshiomhole

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole yesterday warned his counterparts, Ifeanyi Okowa Delta State and Nyesom Wike of Rivers State that any attempts from them to disrupt or unduly interfere in the forthcoming Edo governor­ship poll would be sternly re­sisted by the people of the state.

Godwin Obaseki of Oshiom­hole’s All Progressive Congress and Ize Iyamu of the Peoples Democratic Party are major contenders in the race.

The election earlier sched­uled for September 10 by the Independent National Electoral Commis-sion (INEC) has now been fixed for September 28, 2016 owing to unfavourable se­curity reports that Oshiomhole later allegedly linked to Okowa and Wike.

Oshiohmole who was at the Presidential Villa to see Mal­lam Abba Kyari, Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Bu­hari, for an undisclosed reason, told State House correspon­dents that Edo did not wish to experience violent election similar to those of Delta and Edo states.

“I was very specific to them, that my brother, Okowa and Governor Wike, these two states have had history of vio­lence and deaths during every election.

“In Rivers in particular, they almost use blood instead of ink pad on election day, but in Edo State we have had to run credible election based on one man, one vote and they im­ported people to Edo, some of them have been arrested, some of them have been charged to court and they will be pros­ecuted.

“But my appeal to them is that they should be ashamed because we are all chief security officers of our states. If you are having the level of deaths and killings in Rivers and it is not bothering him and he wants to export that bloodletting tactics to Edo state, our people will re­sist.

“I also want to tell him that people who have exaggerated views of what they represent. A fish or a shark may appear powerful because it is inside the creek but when you move it to dry soil even babies can feast on it. So Edo is not like the creek that you have in Rivers.

“I want to plead with him, if he wants to send anybody, he should send his children, his own blood children, so that they can bear the full conse­quences of their father’s mes­sage.

“He has no right to pay token to other people’s children to go and die in Edo because our people are rugged and dogged.

“We are not in the creeks, if they move those guys who can dive into the water and do magic to the dry soil of Edo, they will learn the hard way what it takes to walk through the desert.

“We want to fight with PVC only, they must not import kill­ers. If they do, they must bear full responsibility,”Oshiomhole said.