Edo PDP Crisis Deepens (Matters Arising)

Edo PDP Crisis Deepens (Matters Arising)

The crisis rocking the local chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State raged on yesterday with a former Senate Chief Whip, Roland Owie, joining issues with Governor Godwin Obaseki over harmonisation in the party.

Obaseki said in a statement on Sunday by his spokesman, Crusoe Osagie that the PDP in Edo has been fully harmonised.

But Senator Owie took the governor on, saying there is no provision for harmonisation in the Constitution of the main opposition.

Owie’s made the declaration yesterday in an open letter to the governor.

The senator’s declaration came on a day Obaseki’s deputy, Phillip Shaibu, decried alleged marginalisation of those who defected with the governor from the All Progressives Congress (APC) on June 19, 2020.

Obaseki and his supporters dumped the APC after he lost the bid to recontest on the platform of his erstwhile party to Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu.

He won the September 19 governorship poll on PDP platform.

Obaseki has been having a running battle with PDP’s National Vice Chairman in the, Southsouth, Chief Dan Orbih, over the control of the party in Edo State.

Orbih, who was Edo State PDP’s immediate chairman, rejected the harmonisation claim of the governor.

Obaseki declared in the statement issued by his spokesman that whoever was not comfortable with his style of leadership should leave the party.

Owie said: “It is unfortunate that our son, Governor Obaseki, has allowed himself to be dented politically by palace jesters around him. He is educated and can read the PDP’s constitution. There is no provision for harmonisation.

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“The issue of APC members that came with him to PDP in Edo State is a matter that can be settled easily, without offending the party’s constitution. No leader in Edo PDP that I know, including Chief Dan Orbih, is fighting you (Obaseki) at all.

“Those fighting you (Obaseki) are those around you, who do not believe in you, but only interested in their personal ambitions and urging you on to wage unnecessary fight against those who gave you shelter, when others drove you into the rain.

“I have sought many appointments to meet with you, since after the September 19, 2020 governorship election in Edo State, but not possible. Our people should not think that we do not advise you.

“Some PDP members in Edo State are telling you that they have registered 500,000 plus new members in PDP. Remember the Anambra State APC’s registration and what happened to APC at the governorship election. Check the total votes for PDP and APC in the September 19, 2020 governorship election in Edo State. Governor Obaseki, shine your eyes.”

He promised to intercede for the governor so that he can see the enemies masquerading around him as his friends.

Lamenting the marginalisation of Obaseki’s supporters, Shaibu said there was increasing pressure on them to dump the PDP.

The deputy governor, who spoke on Channels Television programme “Politics Today”, said he and his supporters might have no option than to join another party if the PDP failed to agree with their terms.

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He said: “For me as Phillip Shaibu, I have no plans now to leave but for Phillip Shaibu and his followers and the followers of Obaseki that left APC to PDP, there are plans to leave PDP but to where?

“For now, I don’t know where, because we feel not accepted in PDP and that’s the reason we are actually thinking that it is time to throw the cloth in and leave.

“The truth is the governor has been appealing and you can see from yesterday’s meeting, some of us were not happy with the governor’s statement saying that he is not leaving; so for us, we felt we left APC because of the governor not because we wanted to join PDP.

“We even had to jettison the relationship we had with the godfather then. So, we followed the governor to PDP because the leadership asked that the governor should go. Having escorted him there, unfortunately, we have not been accepted and for us, we are now telling the governor it is either now or we leave.

“We are not saying dismantle every one and accept us; we are saying create room for some people just like we have done in the appointment in government. We have created space for old PDP that we met; there are commissioners as I speak in my local government, they have more slots.

“In Edo North, they have more slots. So, we are saying create the same opportunity for some of these our people; we are not saying all but for some of these our people that resigned their membership, give them some slots in the PDP; that’s all we are asking for.

“I see myself as being alone in the PDP and as I look left and right, I’m not seeing the guys that asked us to move to PDP, they are not being accommodated.”

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