More Pressure for Obaseki in PDP as Imasuangbon Refuses to Step down for Him

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Last week, Edo State Governor, Obaseki and his Deputy, Shaibu resigned from the All Progressives Congress, APC, after Obaseki was disqualified from the party’s governorship primary.

 

On Friday, They defected to PDP, after his screening on Saturday, he was granted waiver to contest PDP’s primary.

 

However, Obaseki’s speech after receiving the PDP membership form got some stakeholders aggrieved as they saw him as a dictator,

 

Obaseki said: “I know that upon taking up membership of this party, I automatically become the leader of the party in the state. That is the constitution; I read it thoroughly last night (Thursday). I want to assure all of you that I am prepared to provide leadership. I am prepared to provide a leadership that will lead this party to victory and I am prepared to provide a leadership that will not only put PDP in office in Edo State but as the ruling party in Edo State.”

 

One of the stakeholders expressed his grief saying, “What he said was very revealing and disturbing. Who joins a party and automatically becomes the leader? Even if that is what will be, Obaseki should have been more discreet. It shows he is coming to the party to displace those who have worked for years to build the structure”.

 

He lamented saying, “He is going to plant his people everywhere, thereby suffocating those who have toiled for the party even in opposition. ”

 

Another stakeholder added: “It is just about him and his ambition. It is not about the party structure. He simply wants to use our platform to fulfil his ambition and move on. This is a great danger that will boomerang for the party.”

“Fearing that the development might hurt existing cohesion in the PDP, which under the leadership of  immediate past chairman,  Dan Orbih, won four of the nine House of Representatives slots at the last National Assembly elections, two of the three senatorial seats and did well in the 2016 governorship poll, despite facing a ruling party with federal machinery,  a stakeholder said it was not yet late to make amends”.

“So, to give Obaseki the impression he is coming to help us is false because if not for federal power, PDP routed APC in 2016. Rather, he is the one that needs us. The notion that he is a big fish is just nothing but guesswork. ”

 

The three governorship aspirants, Gideon Ikhine, Ogbeide-Ihama and Mr Kenneth Imasuagbon, have insisted, regardless of the pressures from leaders of the party n,ot to step down for Obaseki and his deputy, Hon. Philip Shuaibu.

 

Mr. Kenneth Imasuangbon,  who lost the 2016 APC ticket to Obaseki, stood with the aggrieved stakeholders and vowed not to step down for Obaseki. He said,

 

“I cannot step down for Obaseki, he should be the one to step down for me. I am not going to step down for anybody. We have concluded congress before Obaseki came”.

 

“The action by those calling for a step down must be condemned by all; it is wicked and undemocratic. The military can’t do this; we don’t have democracy in Nigeria, what we have is autocracy. There is no morality in all this. He (Obaseki) can’t push my dream of 16 years away. Thank God for the position of Benin monarch, Oba Ewuare II, who said he needs peace to prevail and that there should be no godfatherism. “It is not about pressure but about doing the right thing in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, due process and the Electoral Act”.

 

According to him: “It is disappointing and a big shame in Edo state and the entire nation and it portends danger for the country and the party. Nigerians should rise up against what is happening, we are not in the jungle, it is no do or die affair but about the process. It is totally unacceptable”.

On the other hand, Ogbeide-Ihama said he was in a meeting and not disposed to making any comment.

While, Ikhine had resolved to make his position known today.

 

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