Edo Guber: Blame Obaseki, NWC if PDP fails to field candidate — Sec

Mr. Hilary Otsu, Secretary, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Edo Chapter, says Gov. Godwin Obaseki should be blamed for the absence of a PDP candidate in the upcoming Edo gubernatorial election.

Otsu said in an interview with newsmen in Abuja on Thursday that the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party should also share in the blame.

He was reacting to the prospects of the party failing to have a candidate for the election given the crisis that trailed its ward congress elections.

Most of the governorship aspirants rejected the outcome of the congresses, which will form the nucleus of voters in the primaries.

However, the chairman of the congress election committee, Gov. Peter Mbah of Enugu, said the elections were transparent.

Otsu said it was incumbent on Obaseki and the NWC to initiate a genuine reconciliation process that would bring about unity in the PDP in Edo.

“I believe that everything is about politics and can be resolved as such. The earlier this (reconciliation) is done, the better.

“But if it is left to fester, then we stand the unfortunate risk of not fielding a candidate.

“In this case, the governor and the NWC must be ready to take responsibility as far as Edo 2024 is concerned," he said.

The secretary also said that the state executive committee was not satisfied with the ongoing process to pick the state’s party governorship candidate.

According to him, no one can be satisfied with a process that he alleged was flawed from the start.

“The mere fraud of depositing the congress materials in the custody of the state governor for “safe keeping” negates the principle of fairness in the process.

“I am sure that is why nine aspirants out of ten have protested, coupled with the fact that they were excluded’’, he said.

He said their reactions could not be faulted given the huge investment they made, including about N40 million each, just to buy forms.