Edo PDP crisis: Obaseki exonerates Makinde, warns party leaders

Governor Godwin Obaseki

Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, has refused to blame his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde, for the crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over the latter’s withdrawal as chairman of the party’s ad-hoc ward congress committee.

It would be recalled that Governor Makinde withdrew his appointment as chairman of the committee following the petition by nine of the other aspirants that the list of electoral officers as originally drawn up by the party had been adulterated with officials of the Delta and Edo State Governments.

Speaking on the development on Sunday, February 4, 2024, Obaseki, however, warned that the disregard of the rules for the exercise would declare the final burial of the party in Edo State.

The governor said: “Makinde’s withdrawal doesn’t discredit the process. What makes the process credible is the quality of the participation. I hope that our efforts to unify the party continue and we ensure that the PDP plays its role in the politics of this country.

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“The purported PDP crisis is hyped but on ground, it is not as they want us to believe.”

However, a leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State, Liberty Ruyi, has urged the PDP mainstream to bring down the roof on the PDP in Edo State.

Ruyi said: “I sympathise with the original owners of the party; the Legacy Coalition. What’s left in the kitty of known political strategies, is to remove the roof.

“When you have a difficult-to-evict tenant, you pull down the roof to allow rain to finish the tenant’s properties. He’ll have no choice but to pack out.

“Legacy coalition should pull the roof down to evict the tenants. When PDP loses, these tenants will pack out, and the legacy coalition can have their house back for reconstruction.”

The Star