
Edo state governor, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole on Monday vowed to work for the success of the Bayelsa State governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief Timipre Sylva, in the December 5 poll, saying Sylva is the candidate to beat.
Oshiomhole said this in Abuja after presiding over the second meeting of the APC National campaign council for the Bayelsa state governorship election which held at the Sokoto Governor’s Lodge in Abuja Monday night.
There had been speculations in sections of the media that the Edo State governor had rejected the offer to lead the Sylva campaign team put together by the national leadership of the APC last week. Oshiomhole and Sylva had earlier disagreed over the outcome of the first APC governorship primary in Bayelsa won by Sylva and subsequently cancelled. Sylva also won the rescheduled primaries.
“For Bayelsa, we are going for the governorship election and we are confident that we shall win. We are all going to Bayelsa to campaign, we have a coherent message and we have a credible and competent messenger. In any electioneering campaign, two things are important, the quality of the message and that of the messenger. We are sure of victory,” he said.
The governor, who spoke in company of the members of the campaign team which include Sokoto State governor, Aminu Tambuwal, said they have moved on and put the past issues behind them in order to deliver Bayelsa to the APC.
“Definitely, even the PDP have issues. We have moved beyond reconciliation, the party in Bayelsa is one. Primaries have been contested and won, a candidate has emerged and everybody is queuing behind him. We have met tonight to strategize on all the issues.
“As members of the progressive family,we know that the people of Bayelsa are anxious to benefit from change, to move away from the party of conservatism to the one that promises change and we are happy that we have a candidate that has enormous electoral appeal on the basis of the structures and track records,” Oshiomhole added.
He noted that even before the formal flag-off of the campaigns the party’s foot soldiers are already everywhere campaigning in the state.