…no going back on Obaseki’s guber fate, says Oshiomhole
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will accept the embattled Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, when he defects from the All Progressive Congress (APC), PDP confirmed on Monday.
But the party insists that there would be no automatic ticket for Obaseki but follow the rules.
The PDP has fixed its governorship primary for June 19th and 20th and the All Progressives Congress (APC) has disqualified Obaseki from contesting in the party’s primary.
Speaking yesterday, the Edo State chairman of PDP, Hon Tony Aziegbemi also said there will be no automatic ticket for Obaseki saying “There is nothing like automatic ticket for anybody, it is like that in any democratic environment, there is a process as laid down by the constitution of the party and that we will follow.
“But I can confirm to you that the governor, his deputy and the entire All Progressives Congress (APC) structure in the state will be joining the PDP soon. We have been in touch in the last few days, by tomorrow, I will be able to confirm the exact date he will be joining with his team.”
On the reports that Obaseki has obtained PDP membership form in ward 4, Oredo local government area, Aziegbemi said “I am not aware of that yet.”
Reacting to the development, a governorship aspirant of the PDP, Barr Ken Imasuagbon said he would resist any attempt to hand over the party’s ticket to Obaseki ahead of the state governorship elections.
Imasuagbon who spoke with newsmen on Monday in Benin, however said the governor was welcome to join the party but that he must join the queue. According to him, “Any attempt to hand the party’s primaries would be met with serious resistance, In fact, there will be no PDP primaries or whatever if the party’s leadership tries it.
“This is not a military coup nor are we in military rule, the governor must subject himself to the party’s primaries; he will need to queue with the other aspirants if he so wish to join, but certainly not handing him the ticket automatically.
“Have you heard before that somebody will join a party and within three days he will be given the ticket. Did he buy the party’s nomination form, was he screened?
In a related development, some chapters of the APC have been strategizing whether to defect with the governor or not.
A member of the House of Representatives from one of the local government in Edo South yesterday met with party leaders in his local government where he urged that nobody should defect to the PDP. “He has met with the leaders and he has told them that they should not leave the APC for any reason because they all worked to build the party”
In Akoko-Edo local government area, it was gathered that the leadership of APC in Ward 1 had met and suspended some members of the party for alleged anti-party activities.
Meanwhile, last minute moves to save the re-election bid of Governor Godwin Obaseki by the Presidency last night appeared to have hit the brick-wall as Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, said they were going ahead with the direct primary scheduled for June 22.
He also expressed optimism that it would be free, fair and transparent, adding that a candidate that can unify the party in state will emerge.
Rising from a meeting he and members of party’s National Working Committee (NWC) had the Chief of Staff (CoS) to the President, Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, in the State House, yesterday, Oshiomhole told State House Correspondents that the exclusion of the incumbent governor from gubernatorial primary remained irrevocable.
“We’ve gone a long way: we’ve advertised the timetable, there was the stage of collection of forms and about six people collected forms. In that time table, we also provided for screening and we also provided for appeals arising from the screening.
“This is standard practice that the NWC has adopted since 2015 and in the case of Edo, we have completed the process of selling forms, we have also completed the process of screening, we have completed the process of appeals arising from the screening by those who wish to take advantage and the NWC has met and has reviewed the report of the screening committee and we were unanimous that the screening was thoroughly done and found that three people were eligible to contest, with regards to the provisions of our Constitution.”
