EXTRA: Obaseki has impoverished Edo people — they can’t afford DStv, says APC chair

Jarrett Tenebe, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo, says Monday Okpebholo, the candidate of the party in next month’s election, will not honour the interview request of Arise Television.

Tenebe said the people of the state can no longer afford cable TV subscriptions.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has scheduled the off-cycle governorship election in Edo for September 21.

Over the past few weeks, journalists on Arise TV’s ‘Morning Show’ have been calling on the three leading governorship candidates in Edo to appear on the show to discuss their manifestos.

While Olumide Akpata, the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), and his PDP counterpart, Asue Ighodalo, have appeared on the Arise TV show, Okpebholo has yet to honour the interview request.

While appearing on the Arise TV ‘Morning Show’ on Thursday, Tenebe was asked why Okpebholo had not granted the interview request.

The APC chairman responded that Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, has “impoverished” people of the state that they cannot afford subscriptions to watch programmes on cable channels.

Tenebe said since people in the state cannot afford cable TV subscriptions, the APC candidate will only be speaking with the Lagos audience if he honours the interview.

“We have about 80,000 people (in Edo) who are supposedly able to get DStv,” he said.

“We cannot have up to like 300 people that can connect to DStv because of how Obaseki has impoverished the state. Everybody is now poor in Edo because of bad governance.

“People can no longer feed in Edo state and talk less of subscribing to the internet. Nobody is watching you (Arise TV) because people don’t have money to watch (cable TV subscription).

“If you want Monday Okpebholo to come to your interview, try as much as possible to subscribe for the audience of Edo.

“People are not watching. Obaseki has impoverished the state to that level. People of Edo have DStv and GOtv, but they don’t have money to subscribe because of how Obaseki has run the state aground and impoverished it.”