A former Edo State Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General, Barrister Henry Idahagbon said on Thursday that Edo state was too sophisticated to engage in politics of zoning the 2024 governorship.

He spoke on the zoning debate on African Independent Television’s (AIT’s) programme “Kakaaki”.

Idahagbon repudiated what he termed the politics of “emilokan” (it is my turn), which, he said Edo Central zone had resorted to in the build up to governorship election holding on September 21, next year.

According to him, “Emilokan politics” had not worked in Edo State and it would never work.

He said that whereas the Peoples Democratic Party was free to zone its governorship ticket to Edo Central, his party, the All Progressives Congress would give all the three senatorial zones a level-play field to vie for the party’s governorship ticket.

Idahagbon stated that his position was that the best candidate with experience and requisite multiple competencies should be supported to win the APC governorship ticket and the governorship election in 2024.

He stated: “we have never zoned the governorship in Edo State. We do not need zoning. What we need is a competent governor”, whom he said was capable of taking Edo state from the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and also saving it from the current existential threats and dire straits.

He pointed out that for the sake of argument, Edo Central could not even lay claim to the right to produce the governors in 2024 on account of perceived marginalisation, maintaining that whereas the zone had produced two governors, to wit: the late Ambrose Alli and Professor Oserhiemen Osunbor and Edo South (four governors- Samuel Ogbemudia, Odigie Oyegun, Lucky Igbinedion and Godwin Obaseki), Edo North had only produced one governor (Adams Oshiomhole).

Idahagbon threw his weight behind the immediate past minister of state for budget and national planning, Prince Clem Agba from Edo North for the governorship ticket of the APC in the 2024 election, saying that “he is competent and has a pedigree of good performance in both public sector (as Commissioner and Minister) and private sector (as Manager in Chevron Oil, where he served with distinction in Houston Texas and Kazakhstan).