Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has attributed the adjudged free and fair governorship election in Edo State to the threat of visa ban on politicians by the United Kingdom and the United States prior to the polls.
Incumbent Governor Godwin Obaseki defeated his closest challenger and candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu in the election.
Before the election proper, there were fears of violence and massive rigging from both sides.
The Oba of Benin had even called a peace meeting among leaders of the two leading political parties, APC and PDP.
But Wike, who was the Chairman of the PDP Campaign Council for the Edo election believes that a free and fair election became possible because of the threat of visa ban recently made by the US and UK.
Last Monday, the US government announced the ban on some Nigerians, who undermined the country’s democracy by involving in election rigging.
Wike, who appeared on Channels Television’s Sunrise daily on Friday, said, “They were out to win at all cost but I think that one thing that played out which I noticed was that take for example, the US, the UK came to say, ‘look, there will be a visa ban if anybody tries anything in terms of violence, in terms of rigging …so everyone was just careful… ‘look, I don’t want to have a problem. I don’t want my family to have problem. We all go to UK every time.”
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