Former secretary to the Edo State government, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu has declared his intent to contest in the forthcoming Edo governorship election on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
Ize-Iyamu hpurchased the N16m nomination form at the PDP state secretariat on June 9th, 2016, becoming the first aspirant to do so.
He was received at the secretariat by the party chairman, Dan Orbih, who advised him to conduct a campaign based on the serious issues affecting the people of the state. The pastor assured the chairman that his conduct will dignify the party at all times.
“The journey to reclaim Edo from the tyrant that has held the state hostage has begun,” he said. “We elected a government without vision and agenda. We must change, the change that has brought poverty and hardship upon our people”.
From the secretariat, Ize-Iyamu and his supporters marched to the Emporium Events Centre in Benin, the state capital, where he officially launched his campaign and unveiled his manifesto, tagged “SIMPLE Agenda.”
The aspirant explained to thousands of his supporters in the packed hall that SIMPLE was an acronym which represented Security/Social Welfare, Infrastructural Development, Manpower Development, Public Private Partnership, Leadership by Example and Employment opportunities/Empowerment.
While promising to run an all-inclusive government if he wins the PDP primaries later this month and the state election in September, Ize-Iyamu berated the Governor Adams Oshiomhol- led government of developing only a part of the state.
“My SIMPLE agenda addresses the problems of Edo South, Edo North and Edo Central,” he said. “It addresses the issues affecting our students, bursaries and scholarships. It addresses the issue of pensioners, youth employment and empowerment, health care. Everybody has something for him in the agenda,” Ize-Iyamu said.
In a direct jab at Oshiomhole who attracted criticism in 2013 when he told a widow to “go and die”, Pastor Ize-Iyamu said that “Edo will no longer have a government that will tell our women to go and die”.
Ize-Iyamu however, stated that Edo State cannot be left the way it is and that they cannot continue in lamentation and suffering. He, however declared that it was time to change the unfortunate change agenda and that the much awaited future was not in another time but now.
