The Edo State Chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has expressed concern over the recent end-of-year media outing by the factional leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), describing it as an unconvincing attempt to mask the party’s continued struggle with post-election reality.

In a statement issued by the State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Barrister Peter Uwadiae, the party said the outing neither offered a credible assessment of governance in Edo State nor added value to public discourse, but instead reflected what it termed an anxious and disjointed response to the PDP’s loss of power.

According to the APC, more than a year after Edo people decisively voted for change, the PDP is yet to come to terms with the verdict of the electorate. The party noted that the previous administration collapsed under the weight of poor leadership, misplaced priorities and administrative detachment during the tenure of former Governor Godwin Obaseki.

“For eight years, governance was reduced to press statements, curated conferences and consultant-driven optics,” the APC said, adding that despite significant inflows from the Federation Account Allocation Committee, governance under the PDP became elitist and disconnected from the everyday realities of Edo citizens, particularly traders, farmers, artisans and rural communities.

The party stated that Governor Monday Okpebholo inherited a state burdened by opaque commitments, inflated contracts and bloated recurrent expenditure, stressing that the decision of the new administration to pause, audit, stabilise and reset was a mark of responsible governance.

Responding to PDP’s references to FAAC figures, the APC described the argument as misleading and intellectually lazy, noting that revenue inflows do not automatically translate into instant infrastructure. It maintained that unlike the PDP era, where spending often outpaced sustainability, the Okpebholo administration is rebuilding fiscal discipline to deliver enduring outcomes rather than hurried projects driven by media attention.

On local government matters, the APC dismissed the PDP’s posture as a defender of constitutionalism as ironic, recalling how elected officials were sidelined and institutions bent to personal interests under the previous administration. It stressed that ongoing legal processes should be allowed to run their full course without selective outrage or political grandstanding.

The APC said Governor Okpebholo’s presentation of the 2026 budget marked a clear departure from the past, noting that governance is no longer being outsourced to consultants but grounded in aligning expenditure with reality, cutting waste and restoring credibility to public finance.

Reacting to claims of an “overbloated executive,” the party described them as disingenuous, arguing that the PDP governed Edo State through unelected power brokers and shadow advisers who never appeared on any official structure.

The party further stated that the PDP’s fixation on so-called legacy projects ignores the fact that true legacies must be functional, transparent, locally integrated and sustainable. It said reviewing contracts, restructuring partnerships and discontinuing wasteful arrangements amount to accountability, not vandalism.

According to the APC, Governor Okpebholo was elected to fix what was broken, clean what was compromised and redirect Edo State towards inclusive, people-centred growth.

“What the PDP calls drift is simply its discomfort with the loss of familiar instruments of control,” the statement said. “What it calls silence is a government choosing action over noise, and what it labels destruction is the dismantling of a system that served a privileged few while alienating the majority.”

The APC maintained that Edo State has chosen a reset and that governance is returning to substance, humility and service, adding that the administration will not be distracted by press conferences designed to mask irrelevance.

“The truth is simple,” the statement concluded. “Edo has moved on. The PDP has not. And that, more than anything else, explains their anger.”