The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) for the September 21, 2024, gubernatorial election in Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, said on Tuesday that the state needed a “panel beater” urgently to fix the deplorable state of broken infrastructure and restore the state to its lost glory.
Okpebholo assured that if elected, he would bring prosperity and growth to the state.
The APC governorship hopeful, who made this statement in an apparent reference to his political critic, who, in a derogatory manner, described him as a “panel beater,” said he did not require outlandish grammar to tackle insecurity, provide functional healthcare, fix dilapidated roads, respect traditional institutions, and revamp the collapsed educational system.
Okpebholo, who spoke at a media interactive session with members of the Edo State Correspondent Chapel, an arm of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Benin, said under his watch, his administration would immediately declare a state of emergency on insecurity.
He added that he did not really need a manifesto to understand how to deal with the multi-headed problems and suffering inflicted on the state by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) government of Governor Godwin Obaseki.
This was just as he challenged Obaseki to give an account of the huge monthly allocation, security vote, and internally generated revenue (IGR) the state had received in the almost eight years of his administration.
“If elected by the special grace of God on September 21st, my job is to do things differently and restore Edo State to its lost glory; therefore, we need a courageous leader who will do things rightly for the benefit of Edo people.
“Today, Edo State is receiving N11 billion in monthly allocation, with the debt profile set at N135 billion, thereby mortgaging the future of our children.
“At this point, what Edo really needs is a panel beater. I’m here to panel beat the state where there will be no thuggery, where Bendel brewery will work, where our roads will be fixed, and where our children will have a functional educational system with teachers in our class rooms.
“I am coming as a servant leader to the people, where I will introduce practical governance and govern with empathy and love for the people.” Okpebholo assured.
Earlier, the media consultant for the Edo State APC Governorship Campaign Council, Prince Kassim Afegbua, said Edo State needed an empathic governor who had emotional intelligence, adding that “Okpebholo’s humility and candour are what sell him. He has anointing of God.”
Afegbua had earlier listed some of the candidate’s interventionist projects, including the provision of transformers, the building of classrooms, the provision of security vehicles to Edo Central, the provision of scholarships, and the provision of boreholes to many communities, among others.
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