•Ize-Iyamu
The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) during the September 19, 2020 election in Edo State, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has said the state needs new, competent and purposeful leadership in 2024, in order to cultivate the right collaboration, formulate appropriate policies and create the necessary framework that are not only people- oriented, but also doable, amid limited resources.
He also declared that Edo needed a government that would be led by one from among Edo residents, not a Lagos-based politician, apparently referring to Governor Godwin Obaseki’s anointed aspirant on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Asue Ighodalo, thereby making Ize-Iyamu to present himself for the September 21, 2024 governorship race.
Ize-Iyamu, an indigene of Benin Kingdom in Edo South Senatorial District, who is also the governorship candidate of PDP in 2016 in Edo State, but was defeated by Obaseki, then of APC, before defecting to PDP on June 19, 2020, spoke yesterday in Benin while declaring to succeed Obaseki on November 12, 2024, reports The Nation.
He said Edo residents ”cannot continue this way, if they are to safeguard the future of their children and generations yet unborn.”
Ize-Iyamu, a senior pastor of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), said: “We need to steer Edo State from the direction of parlousness, insincere governance and rudderlessness. For over seven years, Edo people have had to endure governance by propaganda and falsehood, and the use of government institutions for the purpose of personal vendetta and the oppression of her citizens.
“Edo State government has denied the people the best practice approach to continuous growth, because it lacks a comprehensive, realisable and sustainable plan that encompasses the improvement of infrastructure, health, education, human resource development, job creation, industrialisation, agriculture, security and the refinement of municipal services such as the provision of potable water and electricity.
“Despite the receipt of colossal revenue, Edo State remains terribly underdeveloped and with the government enmeshed in brazen corruption and larceny. A classic example of this government’s ineptitude is the perennial flooding that has ravaged most parts of Edo, as a result of scant road maintenance and a deliberate decision to abandon the Benin storm water project, started by the administration of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.”
