The crisis rocking the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party may be resolved soon as the national leadership of the party said it will set up a committee that would meet with aggrieved party members in the state.
The party also stated that it is set to capture power from the All Progressives Congress at the federal level in 2023.
The party has been engulfed in crisis since Governor Godwin Obaseki was elected on its platform with those who defected with the governor from the APC not getting recognised in their new party.
Speaking on Thursday at a rally in Benin that had members of the Board of Trustees, National Working Committee, senators, members of the House of Representatives and other leaders of the party across the three senatorial zones of the state in attendance, the chairman of the party’s BoT, Wali Jibrin, said the leadership of the party was already working to ensure that the party remains one in the state.
He said, “The governor is a great governor and he is recognised by the party. I will beg Edo people to work together and support to the governor. The governor left the APC for the PDP and we are not going to send him away.
“The PDP will do whatever it could to make sure that this governor remains at the saddle.
“Very soon, the BoT will form a committee that will be here to ensure that there is unity and will give support to the PDP, so the next election will be all PDP.”
Speaking in the same vein, the party’s national chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, said reconciliatory moves would start next week to resolve the crisis in the state.
Ayu said he is married to an Edo woman who has five children for him, asking, “Will I allow the party in my state to fall apart? My brothers and sisters, divided we fall, united we stand.
“For many years, it was difficult to bring democracy to Nigeria because we politicians were divided until one day, a Fulani man called Abubakar Rimi went to Adamu Ciroma and said we are divided because we say we are progressives and conservatives.”
Ayu said many people who have left the PDP are coming back and that many more would come back by next month that would shock Nigerians.
“I led this party in 1999 to conquer the villa in 2023. We shall be back in power in the Presidential Villa and we have already started making the moves. We will go after all the former governors who left the party. A team would be sent to settle whatever differences are in the party in the state,” he said.
Earlier, the governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, said the party was poised to retain power in the state, reiterating the position of his deputy, Philip Shaibu, who said that the state would determine the mood of Nigerians in the next general election as “wherever Edo people go, Nigerians will go.”
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