The Peoples Democratic Party says Ondo people will not be “intimidated and cowed” into submission in the November 16 governorship election. 

The opposition party stated this while reacting to comments attributed to APC national chair Abdullahi Ganduje over the outcome of the Edo governorship election. 

“Another thing that worked in our favour is that while he (Obaseki) said the election was do-or-die. We said no,” stated Mr Ganduje on Monday. “It is do and succeed and going forward, especially in the next election in Ondo in November and the Anambra state election in 2025, we are going to deploy the same template we used in Edo to ensure victory too.”

But in a statement on Tuesday by PDP’s spokesman, Kennedy Peretei, the opposition party noted that “instead of being sober for subverting the will of the people, Ganduje robbed salt on injury by saying that his party intends to control all the five South-Eastern states.”

The PDP statement added, “Perhaps it is important to remind Ganduje that Ondo state is not one of the states where the people can be intimidated or cowed. 

“Our people are very enlightened and resilient. When the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN) attempted to subvert the will of the people, the people proved to the Shagari government that they were different.”

The PDP also described the Edo governorship election as a sham, suggesting that the INEC and the police had a hand in ensuring that the PDP lost the poll.

The statement saluted the Edo people’s courage for their election performance, alleging that INEC disobeyed its own rules. 

“The people of Edo State could never have elected a man who promised to bring ‘insecurity to Edo State’.”

“Let Ganduje first give the ‘Edo treatment’ to his people in Kano State, where he was humiliated by a relatively unknown New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in last year’s gubernatorial election,” said PDP.