We’re stranded in Edo PDP, laments APC defector

By Adibe Emenyonu

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), who left the ruling party with Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mr. Charles Idahosa, has bemoaned their fate in the party, saying they were stranded.

Idahosa, who addressed a press conference in Benin City, yesterday, said rather than blame Governor Obaseki for the lingering crisis in the Edo PDP, the old members of the party, who resisted all moves to integrate the new entrants, should be held responsible for the crisis, because Obaseki had done all he could to ensure that everyone was carried along.

According to him, those of them who left the APC for the PDP were now like political herdsmen in their new party, which has declined tolerating them, even as he posited that the crisis has been affecting the performance of the governor.

Idahosa, a former Commissioner for Information in the Lucky Igbinedion administration and Political Adviser to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, reiterated that those of them, who left theAPC with the governor for the PDP had been stranded, expressing fear that they could become like sheep without shepherd, who roam from one point to the other because of the greed of some politicians they met in PDP.

While acknowledging that the lingering crisis has had negative effects on the performance of the governor in his second, he noted that the problem started when, while looking for a platform for Obaseki to actualise his second term ambition, having been thrown out of the APC, the governor’s camp did not take into reckoning, the bad blood in the PDP.

Idahosa, who refused to blame Obaseki for the problem, said the main concern of the governor was the integration of those who followed him to the PDP, adding, “that was why the governor appointed only 11 commissioners out of the 21 the state normal has, with the hope that the old PDP would allow harmonisation to fill the remaining 10 slots and the left 218 political vacant positions that would be shared equitably.”

“The truth is that, when we were running from scorpions, we didn’t fully know that were bedding with snakes,” Idahosa lamented, adding, “The NWC of the party should do something. Edo issues would have been resolved like Benue and Sokoto States if not for the in-house crisis that is destabilising Governor Obaseki.

“The man has begged, cajoled, threatened and done all possible things to make PDPharmonise, but for personal gains with 2023 in mind, the old hawks in PDP Edo are resisting, but sooner than later, the right thing will be done,” he said.

Idahosa however, called on the governor and all stakeholders to stop the needless suspension and counter suspension going on in the party.