By Jethro Ibileke
The Acting State Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Emperor Jaret Tenebe, has said that the party is desperate and determined to win the 21 September governorship election in the state.
Tenebe stated this on Wednesday in Benin, whilst briefing journalists on the outcome of the meeting of the National Working Committee, NWC, of the party with its 29 aspirants.
He disclosed that the committee headed by Professor Julius Ihonvbere to prune down the number of aspirants from 29 was on the advice of the national leadership of the party.
Commenting of the forthcoming guber election, Tenebe sent out a strong message to the PDP and Governor Godwin Obaseki, warning that tje election will not be “business as usual.”
He said: “We all are aware of what took place during the [general elections], most especially the State Assembly election and the local government election thereafter. We know what the state government did in the election.
“Just this morning we were at the INEC headquarters in Benin to receive the certificate of return of one of our honourable members that won but was rugged out of that election.
“I want to send a clear message to Governor Godwin Obaseki that it will not going to be business as usual. Me as a person and as a party, we don’t want problem.
“In APC, we will come up with a candidate that wí wí The Election And turn the fortune of the state to what each and every person desires.
“We will do everything possible to ensure that that election will be free and fare and we will come out victorious in that election.
“We are very desperate to win the election because the state is in decay. Governor Godwin Obaseki and his semblance have to be booted out of Osadebe Avenue,” Tenebe said.
Meanwhile, the immediate past state chairman of the APC, David Imuse, has said that it took the cooperation of members and their confidence in his leadership for the party to survive the crisis that engulfed it culminating in Governor Godwin Obaseki.
He stated this on Wednesday at the state secretariat of the party when he formally handed over to the acting chairman, Emperor Jaret Tenebe.
Imuse who is also an aspirant of the party for the September 2024 election, noted that the party went through a cancerous and calamitous crisis of colossal damage.
He said: “All of you here are aware that between the period of 2018 and 2020, this party went through internal conflagration, conflagration orchestrated by retrogressive elements within this party who were determined to destroy APC using the instrumentality of the state.
“You will remember that in those times of turbulence, a lot of people here that want to be governor of this state were nowhere to be seen, this party was left in limbo, we had no support from anywhere, we had no secretariat, we had no vehicles, we had no office we couldn’t get anywhere to perform the duties as required by us in our constitution but by the grace of God and by encouragement and support of all, we were able to navigate this party out of those crises.
“In those days, when we were struggling to build this party, we had no executive in the wards, we had no executive in the local governments, only eight of us were remaining at the state but with the cooperation of all under my leadership we were able to navigate out of that difficult terrain.”