Odigie-Oyegun: APC must win Edo guber poll... S/East, S/South next target.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) has declared that after winning the forth­coming Edo governorship elec­tion, the South East and South-South geopolitical zones, where it is currently poorly represent­ed, will be its next targets.
Of the country’s six geopo­litical zones, the ruling APC is yet to make a significant inroad into the two regions, leaving the opposition People’s Democrat­ic Party (PDP) as the dominant party.
Except in Edo and Imo States where it holds sway in the two regions, the PDP and the All Progressives Grand Al­liance (APGA) control the re­maining nine states.

In fact, APGA is most­ly visible in Anambra State where it occupies the Govern­ment House while the PDP is in charge of the remaining eight states.
The states in the South East are Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo while the South-South has Akwa-Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Riv­ers States.
The APC National Chair­man, Chief John Odigie-Oye­gun, who unveiled the par­ty’s ambition at the weekend, said: “We are going to bring our brothers in the South East and South-South into our fold after the Edo governorship election.”
Odigie-Oyegun charged the Lagos State Governor Akinwun­mi Ambode, who is the Chair­man of the National Campaign Council on the September 10 gubernatorial election in Edo State, to deliver the state to the party.
The campaign council was inaugurated in Benin City by Odigie-Oyegun who confidently stated that the party would win the election with ease based on the impressive records of the in­cumbent Governor Adams Os­hiomhole.
He said that the Edo elec­tion is “important, crucial and will be a very great signpost” for the party, adding that their “job is to ensure that Edo State is safe­ly in the hands of the APC.”
Odigie-Oyegun said: “Once that is done, then we will venture out to bring home our broth­ers in the South East and in the South-South to join this great crusade to salvage our nation, to establish a new way of doing things; to establish new ethics, to let our people know that there is a difference between right and wrong, to change this country from the trajectory, on a per­manent basis; we are already in it, to change it irreversibly from the destructive trajectory into which it was plunged.
“So, my charge to this com­mittee, the campaign council, made up of very eminent leaders of this party, each one special­ly chosen for this assignment, is not that they should deliver Edo State. It is a lot more than that. It is that they should deliv­er Edo State with a margin that tells the whole story. So, as you get down to your assignment, consider also that it is in a sense a mid-term election.
“So, it is an election that is important to us that we win very convincingly, not just win, but win convincingly. So, my charge to you is to go out there in a co­ordinated, close working rela­tionship with the local election committee to strategise, raise the resources, talk to whosoever is necessary to talk to, some of the details of which, of course, we will discuss at a very first meet­ing to ensure that the kind of victory that our party deserves is in fact recorded,” Odigie-Oye­gun said.
Responding on behalf of members of the council, Gov­ernor Ambode, who was rep­resented by the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir El-Ru­fai, thanked the APC for giving them the opportunity to man­age the campaign of Mr. God­win Obaseki.
He said: “Our job has been made easier. We have a sitting governor; we have a sitting pres­ident. We have the rule of law and an Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) that is committed to deliver­ing credible elections. So, this election should be easy for us, but we are not going to take any chances.
“By God’s grace, we will give our best shot and come back in a few months to inaugurate Gov­ernor Godwin Obaseki. We thank you very much for the honour,” El-Rufai said.