Edo Guber: “I Am Not Oshiomhole’s Candidate,” – APC Aspirant, Umakhihe

The governorship aspirant of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State and former permanent secretary in the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Dr Ernest Umakhihe, has denied being the anointed candidate of any politician in the state.

The APC aspirant stated this when he visited the APC national secretariat, Abuja, to tender his Interest and submit his nomination forms. He spoke against the background of insinuations that he was one of the favoured aspirants of the former APC national chairman, Senator Adams Oshiomhole.

GWG reports that the aspirant retired from the civil service on January 2, 2024, to focus on his political ambition to win his party’s governorship ticket ahead of the September governorship election in Edo State.

Umakhihe, “I am not corrupt. If I were corrupt as permanent secretary, I would have left the public space and you wouldn’t be seeing me. So I am coming out clean and I have what it takes to have a corruption-free civil service. I will implement those strategies to ensure that the state is run without blemishes of corruption.

“Secondly, I am not the anointed candidate of any politician but God, which I believe is the ultimate. Let me also state here that we have gone beyond the issue of ethnic and sectional politics.

He continued, “Before I was appointed permanent secretary in 2018 by former President Muhammadu Buhari, our then-leader, I had served in several ministries. I didn’t just concentrate on the administration at the centre alone, I have been involved in interventions across the breadth and length of Nigeria. So, having retired from the federal civil service, I said that now is the time for me to have a better opportunity to concentrate solely on Edo State.

“If I didn’t promise but fulfilled all my promises back then, is it now that I will make promises that I won’t discharge more productively? I  have visited the 18 local governments in Edo, and the reception was overwhelming across the three senatorial zones.”

Umakhihe denied being aware that some aspirants were “pruned as being claimed by Edo APC. All I can tell you is that the leadership of APC at the national level has assured us of a level playing ground. I am a party man. If the party asks me to step down at this moment, i will wave goodbye to the ticket.”

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