THE teeming supporters of Governor Godwin Obaseki in the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are plotting to sack Edo State Chairman of the party, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, and other members of the State Working Committee (SWC) of PDP.
The allies of Obaseki, especially the politicians who defected with him on June 19 last year from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP, ahead of the September 19 governorship election, were yesterday angered by last Monday’s decision of Aziegbemi-led SWC to report Obaseki; his deputy, Philip Shuaibu; and the Secretary to Edo State Government (SSG), Osarodion Ogie; to the Prince Uche Secondus-led National Working Committee (NWC), of running the government without consulting the state’s leaders of the party.
Members of the PDP faction, mostly from Edo South Senatorial District, who were defectors from APC, began the plot by removing the Senatorial Chairman, Nosa Ogieva.
Politicians who attended the “Edo South Senatorial District Stakeholders’ Meeting,” accused Ogieva of not recognising Wilson Evbuomwan as the Edo South Secretary of PDP.
Evbuomwan, who read the welcome address at the meeting, hailed Obaseki for his developmental strides; he lauded “the true friends” of PDP, while “the real enemies” of the governing party (PDP) in Edo South Senatorial District were berated while urging the unnamed “enemies” to withdraw from activities that were frustrating the integration of all PDP members.
He said: “A harmonisation committee, under the chairmanship of Senator Mathew Uroghide, was put in place by the stakeholders of Edo South PDP in a meeting held on April 18, 2021.
Sadly, more than one month after the composition of the committee, aimed at ensuring the unity of all PDP members, no effort was made by members of the committee to pursue its agenda. The committee was frustrated by Nosa Ogieva, the Edo South Senatorial Chairman of PDP.”
Edo Publicity Secretary of PDP, Chris Nehikhare, through the telephone yesterday evening, maintained that members of SWC of the party in the state were not aware of the meeting and news conference.
It would be recalled that just last week Monday, the Aziegbemi-led SWC of PDP in Edo reported Obaseki to the members of the NWC of the party, over Edo governor’s plot to dissolve the party’s executives at the ward, local government and state levels, to accommodate the politicians who defected with him, which they (SWC members) described as undemocratic and unacceptable.
On Wednesday, at Government House, Benin, Obaseki met with the members of SWC of PDP in Edo, while begging them to sheathe their swords, in order to move the party and the state forward, with some stakeholders insisting that Edo governor should not be trusted with the olive branch he extended to the SWC members.