By SIMON EBEGBULEM

FORMER Minority Whip of the House of Representatives and chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo State, Mr. Emmanuel Arigbe-Osula, weekend, said that Governor Adams Oshiomhole’s administration has restored hope to the hopeless in the state.

He therefore, expressed his support for Oshiomhole’s second term ambition and urged people of the state to disregard their political affiliations and support Oshiomhole ahead of the July 14 governorship election.

In an open letter to the people of the state, made available to Vanguard in Benin City, Arigbe-Osula reminded the people that the state was misruled for over ten years by “ the same people now calling for change in government” and called on the people of the state to stand up and defend democracy by ensuring that Oshiomhole is re-elected.

He said: “It was an obvious fact that our state was run aground with rampant looting of our resources by past governments. In fact, what the previous governments succeeded in leaving behind is a state that was only good as metaphoric representation of an entity in all indices of modern society.”

The letter further noted that while Oshiomhole may have not been perfect just like any other human being, “ I however agree with majority of our people that in less than four years, he has started very well on the difficult assignment of putting our state on the path of progress.

“He has restored our hope with many of the projects he has completed, several more that are on-going and many planned for execution state wide. I strongly believe that this is the right time for all well meaning Edo people to come together and unanimously endorse this desirable continuity to Osadebey Avenue” it stated.