An All Progressives Congress governorship aspirant in Edo State 2024 election, Joseph Ikpea, has urged the party never to allow the 2016 error to recur in the next year’s poll.
He said that the party made the mistake of choosing a candidate who had no relationship with the people.
In an interview with Vanguard, he stressed that he is the most qualified based on his track record.
He said, “That notwithstanding, the majority of the aspirants for the governorship position on the platform of the APC are qualified but I can conveniently tell you that I am the most qualified not necessarily because I am one of the founding members of the party but mainly because I have stayed, worked and laboured for the party. The God that I serve knows that I have worked for this party more than any of the aspirants because when there was nobody to work, to build the party, I was there for the party. I was the first person who left the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to form ACD, AC, ACN and now APC
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“Coupled with my commendable effort of staying in the party to build it to the enviable height it has attained today, I have the prerequisite qualifications, indispensable experiences and pedigree required to re-engineer the dwindling and dilapidated socio-economic and infrastructural fortunes of the state to an appreciable level where every Edo person and residents are assured a better living condition.
“I was a one-time Edo State Library Board chairman under the Lucky Igbinedion Administration. I was a member of the State Universal Basic Education Board, SUBEB, under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole Administration, one-time Esan South East LGA chairman; and a commissioner under Godwin Obaseki Administration.
“So, you can see from my track record that I am the most qualified, and none of the APC aspirants is as qualified as I am and I believe that my party will not want to make the same mistake it made in the past by supporting Godwin Obaseki, who wasn’t a homeboy, an individual who never really knew the people he was parachuted in to govern.”
On the error the party made, he opined, “With Obaseki as a technocrat our expectations were high, but today, the reverse is the case and everybody is disappointed because the party made a mistake on the choice of an individual who never had a relationship with the people, who didn’t know the pains, anguish, sorrow, fear and aspiration of the people.
“Today, there is no road anywhere across the state but if I am given the opportunity to serve I will turn things around. I will create jobs for the people and that will reduce the criminality and kidnapping that are currently the orders of the day in the state. I have lived all my life as a homeboy and community man; lived with the people, I know what their worries are, I know their fears, I know their pains and I know their aspirations and I empathize with them because I live among them.”
