Uneasy calm between Oshiomhole, Obaseki in Edo
There is tension between Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State and the National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, who is from the state. There are insinuations among the supporters of Oshiomhole that the governor is trying to build his structure ahead of his second term bid in 2020 and wants to ensure that his loyalists dominate the next state House of assembly.
They also believe that his loyalty to the structure that brought him to power has failed with his actions and style of governance in the last two years. Sunday Vanguard reliably gathered that this was one of the reasons the committee sent to Edo by the national secretariat of the party to conduct the party primaries did not announce the results of the state House of Assembly shadow elections and, at press time, the names of winners have not been officially released.
There are allegations that shocking replacements were being made by the national secretariat to have a state House of Assembly that would not be loyal to the governor. This, it was gathered, is part of the long term plan to puncture his return to Osadebey Avenue in 2020. The party conducted the primaries twice and, even then, there are still protests from some members.
The first exercise was cancelled by the National Working Committee, NWC, of APC as it said the committee from the national secretariat was not on ground to conduct the exercise. A fresh exercise was conducted and, since then, dust has been raised by several members across the state.
One contentious area is Akoko-Edo Federal Constituency where the Chairman of the committee in charge of the primaries, Hajia Farida Suleman Odangi, said the result was not ready because of violence in some areas and that the incidents would be investigated and a decision taken by the national secretariat of the party.
The Speaker of Edo State House of Assembly, Hon Kabiru Adjoto, contested the seat in the constituency with the incumbent, Hon Peter Akpatason. The national secretariat submitted Akpatason as its candidate for the election. Sunday Vanguard gathered that Adjoto is heading for court as he believes he won the primary election.
This is notwithstanding a meeting Oshiomhole held with the two contenders in Abuja where he was said to have appealed to Adjoto to support Akpatason, having been one of the lawmakers who stood by the party during the crisis in the National Assembly that led to defections.
The PDP has, in the meantime, released the list of its candidates for the state House of Assembly and National Assembly elections, saying it was ready to win majority of the seats come 2019. The Publicity Secretary of the party in the state, Chris Nehikhare, said the process of picking the candidates was painstaking as the party presented its best.
But some members of the party in Orhionmwon/Uhunmwonde Federal Constituency have petitioned the state Chairman, Chief Dan Osi Obih, on alleged imposition of a candidate in the primary elections in the constituency and urged him to declare Hon Etinosa Ogbeiwi the winner of the House of Representatives election, instead of Uwa Osunbor who the party announced as its candidate.
APC in turmoil in Delta
In Delta State, APC is practically torn apart as the Olorogun O’tega Emerhor/Cyril Ogodo faction has dragged the Chief Great Ogboru/Senator Ovie Omo-Agege/ Prophet Jones Erue faction, the party and the National Chairman of the party to court to stop them from submitting the names of candidates that emerged from the parallel primaries of the faction to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
There was a purported story that it had secured a restraining order to the effect, but the other group countered, saying there no such restraining order. One of the Delta North aspirants, a former Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Rt. Hon Victor Ochei, who lost out in the governorship primary to Ogboru has also taken the APC and Ogboru to court, claiming there were no primaries and calling for a fresh exercise in the state.
Another aggrieved governorship aspirant, Prof Pat Utomi, had his petition dismissed by the party’s Appeal Panel. Also an alleged attempt by some vested interests in the party to substitute the names of actual winners of primaries in some areas generated dust. Clearly, the party is in turmoil in the state. On the contrary, PDP has managed to maintain a level of tranquility despite the agitations of some losers.
