Benin monarch,Omono’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Erediauwa yesterday said it would amount to ingratitude on the part of Benin people not to vote for incumbent Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State, especially following what he described as the on-going transformation in Edo South and other parts of the state.
The Esogban of Benin Kingdom, the Iyasere of Benin,? Chief Sam Igbe ,who spoke at the palace of the monarch on behalf of the Oba when Oshiomhole visited to formally seek the blessing of the Oba to contest the July 14, governorship election? said Oshiomhole remained the Benin candidate that had demonstrated that the interest of the Binis was paramount in his developmental agenda.??
Esogban who offered prayers on behalf of other palace chiefs said, “You will go into the battle and return safely. I don’t want to pray for a candidate that will not win and Oshiomhole is the candidate that knows that Benin City should join the league of other states and he is the only one fixing Benin City.”
While obviously responding to those who had accused the palace of playing politics, Chief Igbe added that the Oba as the traditional supreme leader was the embodiment of politics.
“If you have a house? that is old and dirty and your children cannot paint it and a neighbor came and decorated it, it is only normal for you to support such a person, so if that person wants to be something, you support him.
“Oshiomhole needs to be supported by voting for him. As the Odionmware of the Kingdom and by the permission of the Oba, he (Oshiomhole) will be the winner, I have? spoken on behalf of the Oba, the oracle has spoken and anybody who dismisses the Oracle shall face its wrath.”
Meanwhile, in what appears as a setback for the? Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), ahead of the July gubernatorial election in Edo State, the women leader, Mrs Lucy Omoagbon, yesterday tendered her resignation letter to the party, accusing the leadership of running the affairs of the party as a personal estate.
Omoagbon while presenting copies of her letter of resignation dated July 18, 2012 to newsmen yesterday said she left the party after several failed attempts by the leadership of the party to address grievances raised.
Earlier, the assistant publicity secretary of the party in the sate, Miss Bisi Idaomi, at a press conference at the party’s secretariat had announced the suspension of the women leader,? accusing her of receiving a Prado Jeep from the ruling Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) government in the state.
Omoagbon who described the allegation as baseless said the PDP leadership attitude led to her resignation. “You don’t get anywhere with the leader, the feeling of discontentment has been there,” Mrs. Omoagbon said, adding that she had tried to build the party from the grassroots to the local government level without any recognition.