Gov. Oshiomhole Picks Edo ACN ticket

Gov. Adams Oshiomhole of Edo has emerged winner of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) primary held on Saturday in Benin. It was an election that looked more like a coronation as the governor almost won all the votes cast.

Oshiomhole scored 334,217 votes, representing about 97.7 per cent of the total votes cast to pick the ticket.

Declaring Oshiomhole the winner, the party chairman, Thomas Okosun, presented two Toyota Hiace buses to the governor as a token from the party to assist him in his campaign.

Okosun said that the governor was unanimously adopted by the party faithful, adding that the mandate would enable him complete the work he had started in the state.

Oshiomhole thanked the people for the confidence reposed in him and promised to remain committed to the Edo project, if elected on July 14.

What Edo had achieved, according to him, was as a result of the people’s cooperation and the tolerance of his ideas by the party’s leaders.

“I appreciate the party for ts decision to accept me as a candidate to fly the party flag for the second time.

“You have touched my heart in a way I cannot explain, it is not every governor that gets the opportunity to be endorsed for a second term.

“What you have seen in the past three years will not be compared to what we would do when we reclaim our mandate on July 14, I promise to double the effort,’’ he said.

The Edo State INEC Resident Commissioner, Rose Oboforibo, commended the party for the exemplary manner in which the accreditation process was conducted.

Oboforibo said that ACN had demonstrated that it had educated its party faithful on the accreditation process, adding that INEC would have no problem in conducting the upcoming elections on July 14.

About 10 political parties are fielding candidates for the 14 July election.

Oshiomhole’s main challenger is expected to be the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP candidate, Major General Charles Airhiabere (rtd).

Eight parties have however fused under the name Coalition of Progressive Political Parties and adopted Chief Solomon Edebiri of the Peoples Progressive Party, PPP as their sole candidate. The parties in the coalition are ANPP, CPC, Labour party, DPP, CNPP, PPP, and NAP.