LG polls: Oba of Benin tells candidates to ensure peaceful campaigns

By SIMON EBEGBULEM

BENIN—AHEAD the April 12 local government elections in Edo State, the Benin monarch, Oba Erediauwa, has urged chairmanship and councillorship candidates to go about their campaigns peacefully in order to sustain the prevailing peace in the state.

The Oba’s advice came as Senator Ehigie Uzamere urged members of Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, to vote massively for the party in the forthcoming elections, so as to replicate the developmental success of Governor Adams Oshiomhole at the grassroots.

Meantime, a chieftain of ACN in Edo South, Elder Sunny Uyigue, has also cautioned members of the party to be vigilant, alleging plans by some aggrieved members of the party to vote against the party in favour of Peopled Democratic Party, PDP, candidates, particularly in Ovia North East.

The Oba gave the advice when the chairmanship candidate of ACN in Oredo Local Government Area, Mr.  Osaro Obaze, paid him a visit at his palace to brief him of his ambition, while Uzamere and Uyigue spoke at Okada, Ovia North- East, when the former Woman leader of PDP and ACN chairmanship candidate in Ovia North-East, Mrs. Lucy Omagbon, flagged off her campaign, weekend in Benin City.

The Oba, who spoke through the Esogban of Benin Kingdom, Chief David Edebiri, while praying the ancestors to make the campaigns peaceful, urged the candidates to base their campaigns on issues and eschew violence and mudslinging.