We Are Determined To Dismantle PDP’s Rigging Machine In Edo – Oshiomhole

Following the postponement of the Edo State governorship election, the State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, on Friday, said the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which is accustomed to rigging, will be voted out. Speaking in Benin, the state capital, Oshiomhole said Edo State was the only state that had been able to dismantle the “PDP rigging machine” and will do so again during the rescheduled election.
He noted that the opposition party can’t boast of a transparent election in other states in the South-South geopolitical zone.

Oshiomhole said, “We do appreciate the interest of what I might call friends of Nigeria, those who help us to continually and continuously remember that although there are different nation states, but the world has increasingly become one small village such that events in any part can affect the whole. So, we do not underestimate the import of this election even as it is limited to Edo State.

“Edo State as we speak is the only State that can boast of a record of transparent elections since I came on board in 2007. Since I came, my campaign slogan was, we must dismantle the rigging machine.
“Having been a union member all my life, I couldn’t condone the situation where people are imposed at various levels, and our people gave up on democracy in this state, just like the rest of the South-South.
“I am sure you have witnessed elections there and you can write volumes. They vote with bullets, not with ballots. Terror, not persuasion is the name of the game in the rest of the South-South. But since I came in, we have fought the forces behind rigging.

“We emboldened the people to challenge authorities, which is what I have done when I was in labour. And even as they still rigged me out and I fought them through the legal process, painstakingly established how I was rigged out I got my mandate restored. It never happened before, and nobody appreciates the essence of free and fair election more than myself.”
INEC had on Thursday postponed the governorship election in the state by two weeks over alleged threat of insecurity.
This followed calls by the Nigerian Police Force and the Department of State Services, DSS.