The vice-presidential candidate of the African Democratic Congress (ADC) in the 2027 general elections, Rotimi Amaechi, yesterday said only mad people, including those in Edo State, would vote for President Bola Tinubu next year.
He spoke at the party’s town hall meeting in Benin, Edo State, attended by party leaders, candidates, supporters and other dignitaries, where the party presented its vision for the state and Nigeria ahead of the 2027 elections.
Amaechi, a former governor of Rivers State, further stated that only thieves could canvass votes for President Tinubu.
“They are going about saying, ‘Vote Tinubu, vote Tinubu.’ Only thieves will vote for Tinubu.
“In fact, I read on one of the social media platforms that it is in 2027 that we will know how many mad men we have in Nigeria because it is only a mad man that can vote for Tinubu.
“If Edo people vote for Tinubu, that means Edo people are mad. If you are not mad, Tinubu should not win here,” Amaechi said.
Reacting to the ADC vice-presidential candidate’s comments, the Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Peter Uwadiae-Igbinigie, said Amaechi was entitled to his opinion, but Edo people would know whether they were mad or not. He described the comment as trivial.
“It’s not all statements that we must react to. If he likes, let him say that Edo people are mad. It’s Edo people that will know whether they are mad or not. It’s not all statements that we must react to, honestly.
“It is not every senseless statement they make that we must react to. Left for me, Edo people are not mad. Edo people have learned; they are very seasoned people who know the choices they make during elections. They have never made any wrong choice. They voted for Governor Monday Okpebholo, and that is to tell you the level of sophistication in terms of knowledge of the Edo people. They have been able to separate the grain from the chaff.
“ADC is a party that is made up of the chaff. We are a very seasoned set of people. Edo people have come to like the APC as a party and the people that make up APC. Nobody in Edo you will speak to will tell you that he does not like what Tinubu is doing. The kind of reforms that the Federal Government has carried out, coupled with the level of infrastructural development in Edo today, are enough to show how sophisticated Tinubu is in terms of political sagacity.
“So, the man himself is an iroko. And how can people leave an iroko to go and vote for grass? ADC is made up of grasses. We are made up of people of proven integrity, men who have tasted power, who have used power to change the lives of people in the country.
“So, Edo people are not mad. It’s the ADC people, selectively, who are mad because their sight has been affected by their level of political knowledge of what is going on.
They are no longer in tune with what is going on in Edo. Check the people who are their leaders. They are spent forces within the political arena.
“Edo people will massively vote for Tinubu, and we have promised him 2.5 million votes in Edo, and it is realisable. The people are happy that Okpebholo is developing Edo, and the only way they can say thank you is to vote for Tinubu because they know that the resources that we are using in Edo are coming from the Federal Government,” Uwadiae-Igbinigie said.
