Governor Adams Oshiomhole
- Cross River is president’s stronghold, says Imoke
Davidson Iriekpen 

Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has warned President Goodluck Jonathan not to expect up to five per cent votes from the people of his state in the 2015 presidential election because he has nothing to show for the 95 per cent votes he got in 2011.
Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, has warned President Goodluck Jonathan not to expect up to five per cent votes from the people of his state in the 2015 presidential election because he has nothing to show for the 95 per cent votes he got in 2011.
Speaking with journalists in Benin City, the state capital, as part of the activities to mark his sixth anniversary, Oshiomhole said it would be wrong for the president to expect any vote from the people of the state when he has not justified the votes he got in the state in the 2011 presidential election.
In contrast to his Edo State counterpart, Governor Liyel Imoke of Cross River State said at the weekend that his state remains a stronghold for Jonathan ahead of the 2015 presidential election.
Oshiomhole, who was reacting to questions on the comment by the president that Edo State would fall to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2015, maintained that the people of the state would resist the plan to capture the state.
He noted that, while Jonathan had released over N2 billion to the states controlled by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the Ecological Fund, but refused to give anything to the All Progressives Congress (APC) states.
He said on many occasions, he had cried to the president on the devastating effects of erosion on the people of the state and that nothing was forthcoming from the presidency.
Oshiomhole advised Jonathan to be civil with his choice of words and not to cause further violence in the country, adding that military language should no longer be used in a democratic country like Nigeria.
“In 2011, 95 per cent of the people in Edo State voted for the president, this coming election, he will not get five per cent because he have nothing to show for the votes that we gave him.
“When he gave N2 billon to PDP states from the National Ecological Fund, which is provided for under the constitution, funds that should be used for ecology whether soil erosion, wind erosion, desertification, among others, he gave to the PDP states where he lost the election in 2011, in Edo State where he won 95 per cent, he did not give us a dime.
“Yet we have written to the federal government under PDP, over and over to draw the attention to erosion problem in parts of the state, which has destroyed schools, homes, farmlands and others.
“Even the people of Auchi, led by their paramount ruler, the Otaru, have protested and blocked the Benin-Abuja highway to draw the attention of the federal government to the menace of the erosion that has consumed many homes and farmlands, yet that did not attract the attention of the president and I have raised it with him: our people voted for you why should you punish us. Must we be in PDP? Do we want a one party state in Nigeria?
“Edo people voted for a PDP presidency but what are we benefitting?
Nothing. Just the resurfacing of Benin-Ofosu Road for 15 years that is our reward. So when the president said he will win Edo State, I was wondering. We will fight back because he will lose deposits here.
Nothing. Just the resurfacing of Benin-Ofosu Road for 15 years that is our reward. So when the president said he will win Edo State, I was wondering. We will fight back because he will lose deposits here.
“The president’s choice of words for me was regrettable. No part of Nigeria should fall. So I am shocked by his choice of words. APC will be defeated in Bayelsa and Edo State, these states will not fall to PDP or APC but we will defeat them. We have to be wary of our language.
“The language of our president must not be violent; we mustn’t borrow military language in describing democratic issues,” the governor said.
On whether the APC would win the 2015 presidential election, the governor said the people of the state, who voted for Jonathan in 2011 because of his innocent look and his ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ campaign slogan, which he had long abandoned as a result of faulty advice from his aides, would not vote for the president.
On whether the APC would win the 2015 presidential election, the governor said the people of the state, who voted for Jonathan in 2011 because of his innocent look and his ‘Breath of Fresh Air’ campaign slogan, which he had long abandoned as a result of faulty advice from his aides, would not vote for the president.
He said: “See, the last time PDP won, they had 24 million votes all over the federation. The opposition had 12 million votes or something like that. Part of the 24 million that the president got was from Edo. He is not getting it this time.
“Part of that 24 million was two million rigged votes from Rivers State. I want to see the amount of armed forces he is going to deploy to rig to get two million votes in Rivers State. I just gave you two isolated examples.
“In the South-west, he won a couple of votes and the south-westerners are asking what do we have to show for it?
“In the South-west, he won a couple of votes and the south-westerners are asking what do we have to show for it?
“In my view, what people voted for in President Jonathan was his gentlemanly outlook, his innocent look. I remember the campaign slogan was ‘A Breath of Fresh Air’, that was his selling point.
“The Edo people bought into that selling point but some people around him have now convinced him that he needs to go tough. That he needs to instill fear and that is why his language has suddenly changed believing that if the commander-in-chief talk with fear, people will submit and that is why rather than talk of one-man, one-vote, now he says Edo will fall.
“He also said so in the east, I think in Imo State where he said PDP would no longer be this generous. If people want to vote to remain in the dark, if that is the wish of majority of Nigerians, we’ll have to accept. But I will be surprised when the real question comes – when the real APC presidential candidate emerges.
“I believe in terms of specifics on the economy, unemployment, an incoherent industrial policy, that 15 years down the road we are still importing petroleum product, we are still debating how much we use on subsidising kerosene.
“Nigerians who want these to continue can vote for this same old dish of 15 years from PDP Nigeria which is clearly over ripe for change even in the interest of PDP people. We just need to have a change,” he said.
In the meantime, Imoke, has said his state remains a Jonathan stronghold that will vote en masse for the president.
The Cross River governor, who spoke with journalists at the Margaret Ekpo International Airport, Calabar, at weekend on his arrival from Abuja, said the government and people of the state were solidly behind the president’s second term bid.
The governor, who chaired the event committee for Jonathan’s declaration last Tuesday, described the president’s declaration to seek re-election as a victory to democracy and constitutionalism.
Laughing off claims that he's preparing to leave the PDP for the APC, he said nothing would make him quit a party of which he is a founding member.
“There is nothing conceivable that will make me quit the PDP, a party that I am not only a founding member, but also brought the flag to the state. I will rather leave politics than quit the PDP,” he stressed.
He said since he was not seeking any elective office, his preoccupation now was to play his part and ensure that the president is re-elected in 2015.
Cross River State, he said, would continue to give support to the president even beyond the 2015 presidential election because the people believe in the transformation agenda of the president.
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