Oshiomhole to Jonathan: Don’t expect Edo people’s votes

Governor Adams Oshiomhole of Edo State has advised the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), President Goodluck Jonathan, against banking on the votes of people of the state. He stressed that Edo people will not re-elect the President in next month’s presidential election owing to his abandonment of the state.
According to Oshiomhole, President Jonathan did not fulfill his promise to contribute to the development of the South-South state, despite enjoying 95 per cent of votes of Edo people for his election in 2011.
Speaking separately at the All Progressives Congress (APC) rallies in Ehor and Igueben towns in Uhunmwode Igueben Local Government Area on Saturday, the governor explained that in spite of several letters to the Federal Government to assist the state on erosion challenges, the Jonathan administration neglected Edo after persuading them to vote for him as their brother in 2011.
Stressing that the people of the state are wiser now and would “vote the President out on February 14 for abandoning them,” he recalled that “The last time we voted for President Jonathan, He got 95 per cent of the total votes in Edo State. Yet, I cannot think of any meaningful thing he has done in the state.
“Last year, President Jonathan gave N2bn each to some PDP states even where he lost election to deal with erosion. Those that don’t have flood erosion were given money for desertification but we in Edo State that voted for him got nothing. I am not lamenting this. We have learnt from it and are determined not to repeat our mistakes,” he said.
Oshiomhole accused the federal government of insensitivity by failing to prosecute “those indicted” in the ill-fated immigration recruitment exercise in 2014, adding that it “is a clear indication that President Goodluck Jonathan did not care about the welfare of the Nigerian youths.
“People lost their lives. Last week, the relatives of those who died in Benin were protesting to us that the Federal Government has not given them even the jobs they promised.”
Expressing confidence that Nigerians will vote for change at all levels in next month’s elections, the Governor assured that “I believe that with Maj. Gen. Buhari, Nigeria will be in a safer hand beginning with security.