Power Tussle Mars Edo PDP’s Primaries As Obaseki Prefers Ex-APC Loyalists

The Edo State wing of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is currently preparing for the uncertain 2023 polls from a seemingly weak position. The party has cracked along the line of Governor Godwin Obaseki and Chief Dan Orbih.

Signs of internal bleeding in the party emerged on Sunday when the two PDP stalwarts conducted parallel primaries.

The party was expected to join other states across the country to conduct primaries to recruit candidates for the state House of Assembly and the House of Representatives.

Naija News sources said on Monday that parallel primaries were held by the two power gladiators simultaneously at different locations across the state.

The Obaseki faction is alleged to be favouring only aspirants who defected with the governor from All Progressives Congress (APC) to PDP. The governor’s loyalists have been declared as winners.

From the camp of Dan Orbih, PDP’s National Vice-Chairman for the South-South geopolitical zone, only old PDP players are emerging winners.

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials however monitored the primaries conducted by the Dan Orbih faction.

Though there was no such indication at the governor’s faction, a party chief however explained that the primaries were not parallel.

According to the PDP chief who did not want his name in print, said the primaries can only be done by the list certified by INEC for the purpose.

“You cannot build something on nothing. Elections were held to elect three ad hoc delegates. It is only those three delegates that can participate in this election. And those three ad hoc delegates’ elections were monitored by INEC, and they have the names of those who emerged.

“You cannot write names of people in Government House to now want to use to conduct election. Those on the list of the governor were never monitored by INEC in the election that led to their emergence. Where INEC is, is where primaries are being held”, says the PDP source.

The state’s Information Commissioner, Adaze Ewanta, while commenting from the governor’s faction, dismissed reports of parallel primaries.

This article was originally published on Nigeria News