Charles Airhiavbere, a retired Major General, has joined the Edo 2024 governorship race on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He said this at a meeting of some APC leaders in Benin on Monday.
Airhiavbere, former Executive Director of Finance and Administration of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), said it was time for the APC to regain the status of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
“So, I have contested an election in Edo State to lead the people of Edo to a land of prosperity, a land of security and a land of infrastructure development and that is why, five days after my retirement in 2011, I joined the party at the federal level at that time.
“I couldn’t have just left the army and come to Edo and confronted the opposition.
“I reached the party primaries seven months after retiring and won the PDP candidacy because my programs were laudable; “It was clinically explained to them that these were the programs I have for the people of Edo.”
The retired Major General said he left the PDP for the APC in 2016 because the APC was in control of the federal government, adding that “I have always insisted that Edo remain under the federal government because this is the heart of the nation.”
He said getting the APC to win the Edo gubernatorial election is “a task that must be done.”
“That’s why I decided to throw my cap in the ring. We must be prepared. For an opposition political party, I have experienced it. I’ve been on both sides; being in the opposition, being in the government and I know what it is.
“This is an opportunity for me to present to you my scorecard of what we have done at NDDC. When I got there, we did not have approved budgets for 2021, 2022 and 2023 and these are things that we implemented in less than five months of my stay at NDDC,” he said.
(YAYA)
