Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
A stalwart of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo Central senatorial district, Chief Francis Inegbeneki, has said that the people of Esan are going to put their wealth of political experiences garnered over the years into play having two of their sons as governorship candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and that of the All Progressives Congress (APC) from the Esan extraction.
The PDP has Asue Ighodalo as its governorship candidate while the APC has Senator Monday Okpebholo as its own governorship candidate. Both are from the Esan speaking extraction.
He said this while fielding questions from newsmen in his Benin City resident.
According to him “I will not say it is going to place the Esan people in a tight corner rather it is going to be the best thing that has ever happened to the Esan people.
“In the past, we have had national chairmen from very strong political parties who were from Esan. At a time we had from National Republican Convention (NRC) and Social Democratic Party (SDP) both from Esan.
“I must tell you that Esan people are very pragmatic politicians. If you check from the history of democracy, in Nigeria, you will see that Esan people have always played a significant role in any of the democracy so far.
“So, this time around, we are going to teach people politics and other people will learn from this election that Esan, despite the fact that both leading parties, their candidates are from Esan, it is going to be a blessing to Esan and not a curse.
“There will not be any much problems like I said earlier, the people will decide. No bad blood because politics is not war.
“Those who want to vote for PDP, will vote for PDP and those who want to vote for APC in Esan land, will vote for APC in Esan land but at the end of the day, the people will decide”, Inegbeneki said.