As the Chairman of the Edo state governorship Delegates election, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state was supposed to lead other leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the state on Sunday to conduct the election.
Following Makinde’s absence, the election was later conducted by Governor Peter Mba of Enugu state, the Deputy Chairman of the committee, but the process has now been declared null and void by some key governorship aspirants in the state, including Philip Shaibu, the state Deputy Governor.
The delegates’ election is coming ahead of the primary election of the PDP to pick its candidate for the governorship election slated for September this year by the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
According to one of the nine governorship aspirants, Anslem Ojezua who spoke for others, the election conducted by Governor Mbah was a charade, and a hatchet job to satisfy the wishes of the governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki.
The state governor is believed to be supporting Asue Ighodalo to succeed him when he finally steps down from office later this year.
Reacting, Ojezua who briefed journalists after the election said the absence of Governor Makinde at the event has posed a serious legitimacy problem for the delegates’ election, saying the Oyo helmsman shunned it in other not to be part of the illegality.
He said some aspirants had written a letter to Governor Makinde complaining drawing his attention to the different delegate lists used for the election, which he claimed were different from the list approved by the PDP national secretariat.
The governorship aspirants said Governor Mbah and other members of the 5-man panel set up by the PDP NEC to conduct the election did not meet with them, accusing the Enugu helmsman of coming to the state to rubber stamp the plan of state governor.
Ojezua explains what happened: “Between Friday and today (Sunday), we have seen three different ad-hoc electoral committee lists, first was the one that had His Excellency Seyi Makinde as Chairman, and Senator Manu as Secretary.
“A day after, we had yet another list with Seyi Makinde as chairman and one Pascal Adigwe as Secretary. Today (Sunday), we had yet a different list with Peter Mbah as chairman and Pascal Adigwe as secretary.
“We do know that the very first one must have been the one approved by the national working committee. We are reliably informed that the National Working Committee has not met since the last time they approved that list. Now we do not even know which one is which.
“Yesterday (Saturday), we wrote to Seyi Makinde about the observation we made and we were assured that they will provide us with a level playing field, and it was agreed that those who are going to officiate are going to be members of PDP from outside of Edo state.
“But we found that contrary to the list the party sent to INEC, another list was flying around with a prominent list of government officials from the Edo state government to perform very sensitive assignments in relation to this process.
“What is even worse is that the committee has not even arrived in Benin; we were later informed that he (Governor Seyi Makinde) has declined his appointment.
“It was only today (Sunday), that we were informed that Governor Mbah is now to take the position of the chairman. Governor Mbah didn’t come to Benin until this afternoon,” he said.
Meanwhile, those watching the state insist that the crisis in the ruling PDP poses a serious threat for the party which is trying to retain the state later this year when the governorship election is conducted.
A house divided against itself cannot stand, critics say of what is going on in Edo PDP ahead of the critical election.
