Former All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, has spoken for the first time after his party and candidate, suffered defeat in the Saturday, September 19 governorship election in Edo State.
He said, he wasn’t down as some people had thought, but was strong and in high spirits not minding his loss in the keenly contested election.
Oshiomhole’s estranged “godson,” Godwin Obaseki, who is Edo State governor of Edo and candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), had defeated Osagie Ize-Iyamu, the APC candidate in the election.
The former Edo State governor, who had adopted Ize-Iyamu into the party after Obaseki who contested and won the governorship election in 2016, as APC candidate was disqualified by the party, the reason he, Obaseki, left the party together with his deputy, Phillip Shaibu, who later emerged the standard bearer of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), and led it to victory in the Saturday election.
Oshiomhole, who had campaigned for Ize-Iyamu, had been blamed by his party men and even APC governors for causing the loss of the party in the election, for refusing to allow for ceasefire between him and Obaseki.
In his first interview since after the election, which he granted GEE TV Africa, Oshiomhole, said he was moved to tears with the love his people showed to him, especially the aged ones he said stood by him, not minding difficulties faced, even on election day.
ALSO READ: Edo election 2020: Oshiomhole wins polling unit 99.9%, APC 1,201, ADP 1, PDP 0
Oshiomhole, a former labour leader, said in the interview: “You know in life, you work hard and leave God for the outcome, you do your best and trust God to bless your effort.
“I feel good, I feel healthy, thank God, I feel strong, thank God. In life you win some and you lose some but life goes on.
“I want to thank everybody, I am sure a lot of people think Comrade is down but I am not down. When God says you are not down, you are not down and I am not down.
“I thank Edo people for all they did over the past two, three, four, six weeks, people under the rain under the sun, young ladies carrying babies on their back, I saw elderly women struggling to see my small face, and on election day I was moved to tears when I saw elderly women of 70 to 75 years sitting down because the card readers were not working and they were not frustrated with that, they struck me.
“If at their age, they didn’t give up, why should I give up? And I ask our people to have faith in our country, you cannot have faith in another country,” he said.
“I have only have one passport and I am not about to apply for any other passport. This country, we must make it great, we must strengthen democracy, we must improve on it.
“No matter the outcome of an election or a particular edition of the process, have faith in God and have faith in our country. God bless you all.”
