Some leaders of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Monday evening ratified the suspension of the National Vice Chairman South-South of the party Dan Orbih, the member of the House of Representatives representing Oredo Federal Constituency, Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama; State Secretary of Edo State PDP, Hilary Otsu; the PDP Chairman in Oredo local government area, Oduwa Igbinosun, and the Chairman of PDP in Oredo Ward Four, Mr Friday Enaruna.
The Editor Nigeria gathered that the leaders who met in Benin City were selected from the 192 wards of the state.
This position is despite the position of the National Working Committee (NWC) through its spokesman, Kola Ologbodiyan nullifying the suspensions which were carried out last Thursday.
The motion for the ratification of the suspension was moved by Mike Nosa-Ehima, a leader of the PDP in Oredo Local Government Area, and was seconded by Sylvanus Eruaga, a leader of the party from Etsako West local government area.
Nosa-Ehima said, “all those that have refused to allow the party to grow are being suspended in the interest of the PDP.
Earlier in the meeting, Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, said, “There are people who have continued to come and feed you with lies. That is the nature of their politics if there is no confusion they will not eat.
“Last year, when we joined you, we started a movement that has never happened in Edo before not even in our politics. If we go for election today, we will win by 85 per cent. It means we don’t have meaningful opposition and if this is the situation, we should not create opposition inside.
“I will not leave PDP. I am the leader of PDP and by the grace of God I will lead PDP well. Any body that doesn’t want me to lead or want to accept my leadership will leave PDP for me.
“We are here to stay and invest in PDP. Am the governor to join PDP last and was made chairman of our e-registration process so why should I leave the party. We came to meet PDP as a solid Party the only true party in this country while others are special purpose vehicles for elections.
“I said come let us Harmonise and the harmonization is to carry everybody along. We don’t need to lie in politics. Politics is a game of numbers. For one year I have been begging for us to Harmonise. Went round when we wanted to make appointment and the numbers of application, we have been almost same with the petition we received, it shows we have not harmonised.
“I call all of you leaders of the party to come to build a solid Party. We won our election last year because of our cooperation. United we stand and divided we fall. We are in PDP now for over a year.
“We can’t escape from harmonization if we want to go for National Convention. I have almost 300 to 400 Political appointment I want to make.
“People are greedy, politics is all about give and take. I appreciate PDP, we came we won we are not leaving PDP, will not accept any opposition within PDP, if you are not happy with my leadership you can leave us. Let’s all of us Harmonise some Local Government have done there own while some are still far behind.
“By this weekend, please complete the harmonization. I am here to assure you that there is something for everyone that have worked for us and continue to work for us. The important thing is for us to continue to grow our party”, He said .
Leaders from Edo Central, Mrs Philomena Ihenyen and Johnson Abolagba from Edo north pledged their support for the governor and said they were against those frustrating the harmonisation plans in the party.
As at the time of filling this report, the state chairman of the PDP, Tony Aziegbemi and the State Publicity Secretary, Chris Nehikhare have not picked repeated calls neither have they responded to text and WhatsApp messages to them.
But a high profile member of the party who did not want his mentioned since he is not an official of the party said “The PDP has a constitution and it is an institution, check if those people who met are officials of the party. The party spokesman at the national has spoken, the spokesperson of the party in the state has spoken so they are the best to still speak on this. However the governor is our governor, we have the government and the governor is our senior brother we all worked for him win, we will not quarell and we have refused to quarrel with him.”
