A governorship aspirant on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) faction backed by the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Minister, Nyesom Wike, David Ombugadu, has said the Independent National Electoral Commission Result Viewing portal (IReV) showed that he won the 2023 governorship election in Nasarawa State.
Ombugadu made this known after his screening in Abuja, on Thursday. He said, “I have been in this party, I ran for the governorship in 2023, and it was a victorious outing. As I speak, if you go through the iREV, you will see that we won the election. The facts are still there. The details are still there.
“I am urging all the members of the press and civil society to ensure that the protection of vote is not solely the responsibility of the candidates, but also the people.
“Together, I believe we will put all the necessary measures to ensure that our votes are protected. To ensure that we transmit the collation, the voting, and everything, all the process, so that we have a very transparent outing.”
At least about twenty governorship aspirants were screened by the committee.
The exercise took place at Legacy House, PDP office in Maitama, Abuja.
Addressing journalists after the exercise, Hazeem Gbolaranmi, a governorship aspirant from Oyo State, accused Governor Seyi Makinde of “abandoning the PDP that made him what he is today”.
He said, “I find Seyi Makinde’s ambition to be President as an inordinate ambition; for him to have even aspired for president. At what stage? Where has he acquired that experience?”
He said the PDP assisted him to be what he is today and he dumped the party all of a sudden. To gain what, adding however that the governor only tried on infrastructure.
He promised that as a grassroots person, he would bring about policies that will improve the lives of the people in the area of health, education and infrastructure.
Also speaking Mogaji Kayode Ogunsola, another aspirant who wants to take over from Makinde promised to industrialise the state.
He said, “We must look at ways to industries the state. My point is that building circular roads is good. But when people don’t have cars and their income levels are low, it almost doesn’t make a point.
“So, we must look at how we build the middle tier — SMEs. That’s key. And that’s what I’m going to bring to the state. That’s on the economic side. On the job side, we need to ensure that our youths are trained. Because we hear it all the time — development skills are poor.
“People are building houses and estates, but they don’t employ Nigerians. That’s sad. They bring people from Benin and Togo. So, what makes a man from Benin better than my people in Oyo State? The skills are not there. So, we need to ensure that we build faculties and centres of excellence in masonry, carpentry, and woodwork. ”
On his part, Dr. Kelechi Anosike a governorship aspirant from Abia State said those saying the incumbent government in Abia has done need to show the statistic they are using to assess him, saying that there is nothing on ground to show that the Governor has performed.
“The people of Abia state are being short-changed if the government was doing well i wouldn’t be in the race but i have seen that it was all about media hype and exaggerated performance with nothing on ground, nothing concrete on ground.
” In the few sectors of good governance it is only road you can score them about 50 percent, short distance roads. So that will give you an answer. But Abia has not done very well.”