Abuja (Sundiata Post) – As the two main gladiators in the Edo State governorship election, Governor Godwin Obaseki of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his key rival, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), ready for an epic showdown on September 19, certain undercurrents look set to determine the final outcome.
Tension and speculation are at fever pitch, but from all indications, the battle is not anyone’s to lose yet. However, each passing day reveals gradually evidence that the final outcome may follow some existential extrapolations.
Come September 19, Edo State will go to the polls to elect a governor to pilot the affairs of the state for the next four years. They will either re-elect Obaseki, who is running on his record in the last almost four years, or opt for his main challenger, Ize-Iyamu, who incidentally was Obaseki’s challenger some four years ago.
A two-horse race, the major political parties, APC and PDP, are on a familiar terrain, more so since the candidates of the two parties had contested against each other in 2016. While the incumbent governor, Obaseki, had contested on the platform of APC, Ize-Iyamu carried the PDP flag.
Today, however, fate has swapped platforms for them. Unlike in 2016, when Obaseki contested and won on the APC platform, he has found himself in the PDP ahead of the September 19 election, while Ize-Iyamu, who was PDP’s candidate in 2016, has found himself in APC, which he had left six years ago to pursue his governorship ambition.
Interestingly, both PDP and APC are quite conscious of the importance of the September 19 governorship election to the present political equation in the state, region and country, and their future prognoses, the reason the two parties have set up high-powered election committees to lead them to victory.
APC appointed the governor of Kano State, Abdulahi Ganduje, as the chairman of its election committee, while PDP chose Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike to lead it in the quest for re-election.
Source: ThisDay
