A coalition of youth support groups under the aegis of Edo Youths Awake Initiative (EDYAI), has said that the integrity of Dr Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governorship candidate in the September election in the state, remains rock solid and intact.

It added that an elaborate plan to maliciously tarnish the good name and hard earned reputation of the gubernatorial hopeful by opposition parties in the state has been uncovered.

In a statement in Benin City on Friday, titled “Grand Plan To Maliciously Tarnish Ighodalo's Name and Reputation”, the group's National Coordinator, Jerome Omonogbe Tadefua, said: “Having failed to keep pace with Dr Asue Ighodalo's growing popularity and acceptance by the people of the state, opposition elements have now designed and resorted to malicious attacks on the obvious darling of the people with the sinister intention to impugn his good name and bring his hard earned image into disrepute.

“Their latest act of desperation is an imaginary, fictitious and utterly false story against Dr Asue Ighodalo where he was alleged to have been implicated in a financial scandal involving former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

“However, we, Edo Youth Awake Initiative (EDYAI), wish to state that no amount of blackmail can tarnish the good name of the best candidate in the coming election. Importantly, we wish to State that after doing our investigations, we can place it on record and for the avoidance of doubt that this is a white lie from the pit of hell. Ighodalo’s unassailable tract record of competence, capacity, integrity and compassion towards all and sundry is simply driving his political enemies crazy. Ighodalo’s integrity remains rock solid.”

The group added that, “The Ighodalo we know will never descend into the gutter with them. His recurring instruction is that people must take a cue from the famous words of former First Lady of the United States, Mitchelle Obama, ‘When they go low, we go high.’

“We, therefore, wish to advise the general public to treat the report as a useless piece of tissue paper. Though we have the capacity to return boulders for every pebble thrown at Dr Asue Ighodalo and make whoever sows the wind to reap the whirlwind but that is not in his character. His eyes are fixed strictly on the ball – how to make Edo State a First Word sub-national state in Nigeria.

“Ighodalo has no time to ferret for crickets with his toes while carrying, metaphorically, an elephant load. Suffice to say for the umpteenth time that the report is a lie and to assure the teeming supporters, lovers and promoters of Dr Asue Ighodalo that his integrity remains rock solid and no cause for alarm.

“For the record, just as the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) formally lifted ban of campaigns on Wednesday, April 24, Dr Asue Ighodalo made a passionate appeal to his co-contestants, urging them to focus on issues and shun campaigns of calumny, character assassination, inanities and be decorous. We hope they heed the advice and stop wasting their time concocting lies,” the group concluded.

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