FOLLOWING Friday's formal defection of Governor Godwin Obaseki to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the picture of the grand battle
FOLLOWING Friday’s formal defection of Governor Godwin Obaseki to the Peoples Democratic Party , the picture of the grand battle that would be fought in Edo State during September 19 governorship election is becoming clearer.
It would be recalled that when Obaseki resigned his membership of APC, followed by Shuaibu, some PDP leaders said they were yet to approve the deputy governor’s request to be Obaseki’s running mate on PDP platform. In fact, insiders said it was the “tough negotiations on the conditions that that delayed Obaseki’s declaration for PDP until this Friday.” The source also said even the currently agreed conditions are not generally accepted by major stakeholders in Edo PDP.
“Aside this,” said the source, “the current battle over who is the real National Chairman of APC will finally be a major factor in the whole power play. But whatever is the case, it seems certain that APC may be troubled by seemingly endless litigations. Already, we have witnessed primaries litigations. Nobody would be surprised if we have post primary litigations and pre and post-election litigations.
Commenting on how this may work against the governor, our source said on Friday: “Obaseki just joined PDP today. This means that he did not take the mandatory Expression of Interest Form. It also means that he did not participate in the party’s screening exercise.
“The deadline is Saturday, June 27, 2020. I must stress that the date is firm and fixed. There will be no extension. While the conduct of primaries and nomination of candidates will be the sole responsibility of political parties, our officials will monitor the primaries as required by law. Already, INEC has published the date and mode of primaries for each of the 15 political parties that indicated their intention to participate in the election.
Speaking on development within the party as regards the defection of Obaseki and his supporters into the PDP, state chairman of the party, Tony Aziegbemi, said there would be no automatic ticket for Obaseki. He said, “There is nothing like an automatic ticket for anybody; it is like that in any democratic environment, and there is a process as laid down by the constitution of the party and that we will follow.
So far, three aspirants have been cleared to participate in the gubernatorial primary scheduled for June 23. They are Omeregie Ogbeide-Ihama, Gideon Ikhine and four time governorship aspirant, Imansuangbon. The three aspirants earlier obtained the PDP Expression of Interest and Nomination forms after paying the prescribed sum of N22million. “Each of our three aspirants believes that they have what it takes to deliver Edo State to the PDP in the September 19 governorship poll.
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