Edo State is set for a crucial decision today as voters go to the polls to elect a new governor.

With Governor Godwin Obaseki completing his tenure after two terms, the race is now wide open.

The All Progressives Congress (APC), which once held power in the state before Obaseki’s defection to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2019, is determined to regain its influence.

Among the top contenders vying for leadership are Asue Ighodalo of the PDP, Senator Monday Okpebholo representing the APC, and Olumide Akpata of the Labour Party.

Seventeen candidates are vying for the governorship position, with sixteen men and one woman in the running.

They include:

Action Alliance, AA, – Tom Iseghohi

New Nigeria Peoples Party, NNPP – Azena Azemhe Friday

All Progressives Grand Alliance – Osifo Isiah

All Progressives Congress – Senator Monday Okpebholo

People’s Democratic Party – Asue Ighodalo

Labour Party – Olumide Akpata

All People Movement – Ugiagbe Sylvester

All Peoples Party – Areleogbe Osalumese

Action Democratic Party – Kingson Akhime Afere

African Action Congress – Udoh David

Zenith Labour Party – Akhalamhe Amiemenoghena

Boot Party – Osirame Edeipo

Accord Party – Bright Enabulele

African Democratic Congress – Osarenren Derek Izedonmwen

Peoples Redemption Party -Patience Key Ndidi

Young Progressive Party – Paul Okungbowa Ovbokhan

Social Democratic Party – Aner Abdullahi Aliu

About nine of the above-mentioned political parties have unanimously endorsed and collapsed their structure into the All Progressives Congress, APC, in the state.

EKWUTOSBLOG will provide situation reports from the state as events unfold.

Security forces thwarted a reported assassination attempt on Henry Okojie, a federal representative for the Esan North-East/Esan South-East Federal Constituency in Edo State. The assailants were identified as armed individuals believed to be political operatives.

Michael Ihaza, Okojie’s media spokesperson, confirmed the incident in a statement released on Friday, September 20. He reported that Okojie, who is married to actress Mercy Johnson, was targeted at his home by gunmen in a Lexus GX 470 with Rivers State license plates – PHC 253 FF.

The statement emphasized that the planned attack “failed due to the prompt response of security personnel assigned to the lawmaker.”

Photo source: Instagram

The 87-year-old statesman made this demand while speaking virtually at the memorial lecture for Denis Joseph Slattery, a late cleric, in Lagos.

In his speech, titled The Imperative for Moral Rectitude in Governance, Obasanjo emphasized that the key requirement for anyone involved in governance is “accountability.” He argued that officials with “questionable” integrity are incapable of making decisions that benefit the greater good.

“If you look clinically at the people in government today at both executive and legislative levels, some of them should be permanently behind bars for their past misdemeanour and criminal misconduct,” said Obasanjo, who served as Nigeria’s head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as president from 1999 to 2007. “You cannot expect thieves to give good judgement in favour of the owner of the property.”

Obasanjo also reflected on his shocking experiences with corruption, recalling how dishonesty was normalized in politics. “The first thing that shocked me when I went into politics was the level of corruption of election officials which was taken as normal,” he said. “The second was the level of general and criminal misbehaviour which was taken with levity and impunity. We were at a meeting and a man lied and I confronted him, and the next thing he said is ‘It is all politics, Sir’.”

Obasanjo lamented how politics has been used to justify unethical behaviour, adding, “Every bad thing they do is passed on as politics which means politics has no room for morality, principles, rectitude, ethics, good character and attributes.”

He concluded by urging Nigeria to seek “transformational leaders rather than transactional leaders, truth instead of lies, honesty instead of dishonesty, integrity instead of disintegrity, hope instead of despair, production instead of deduction, inclusion instead of exclusion and marginalisation.”