Edo 2020: APC accuses Obaseki of blackmailing teachers, sportsmen for votes

With less than 9 days to the Edo state gubernatorial election, the All Progressives Congress (APC) Media Campaign Council on Wednesday, September 9, accused Governor Godwin Obaseki of making forceful attempts to coerce teachers and sportsmen for votes.

According to Vanguard, the APC campaign council alleged that it had credible reports from multiple teachers across Edo detailing how Obaseki has been trying to get them to either join his campaign rallies or forfeit their salary.

Similarly, some Sports Commission personnel also claimed that they received text messages trying to coerce them into attending a rally reportedly organised to drum support for Obaseki.

John Mayaki, the chairman of the Campaign Council in a statement said the Edo state governor Obaseki has introduced desperation and blackmail.

"He now coerces teachers under state pay to canvass for his rallies in the buildup to the September 19 elections.

“This report was revealed after aggrieved teachers in the state cried out protesting the threat to withhold their monthly pay if they resisted the imposition," he said.

However, Crusoe Osagie the special adviser on media and communication strategy to the governor dismissed the allegations describing it as senseless talk.

Osagie in reaction to the claims said that the governor has no reason to coerce people to support him because his works speak for themselves.

He said: “The governor does not need to coerce teachers to support him. That is preposterous. No such thing happened. Obaseki’s following is organic and real. There is no such thing as threats for anyone to support the governor."

Earlier, Legit.ng reported that Governor Obaseki on Tuesday, September 8 defeated the candidate of the APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu by over 17 points (Obaseki 57.73%; Ize-Iyamu 40.07%), in an online poll conducted by Channels Television in partnership with Nigeria Civil Society Situation Room.

While Obaseki, 61 is the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ize-Iyamu, 58, is the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The duo are also the leading candidates of the electoral race.

The poll, according to the organisers, was put together to enable the general public select their preferred gubernatorial candidates who are expected to feature in the station’s forthcoming debate programme.

In a related development, Ize-Iyamu has declared that nothing would make him lose the poll.

Speaking on Politics Today, the Channels TV flagship programme, Ize-Iyamu, said that his victory at the poll is not negotiable, adding that the people of the state would decide who to govern them on Saturday, September 19.

In a veil reference to the governor of the state Ize-Iyamu said the people of the state cannot be pulled by threat.