Edo PDP still divided over withdrawal of election petition against Oshiomhole
DISCORDANT tunes have continued to trail the decision of the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to reverse its intention to challenge the re-election of Governor Adams Oshiomhole at the tribunal.
Indications that the party was heading for another round of crisis emerged shortly after the state chairman of the party, Dan Orbih, in a statement on Monday said the PDP had withdrawn from the tribunal.
But some aides of the party’s governorship candidate, Maj.-Gen. Charles Airhivabere, said their boss would go ahead with the petition at the tribunal.
However on Tuesday evening, the Edo-South Senatorial District leaders in the PDP, rose from a meeting and resolved to go against the party and back Airhiavbere’s decision to go to court.
In a statement signed by one of the leaders, Owere Dickson-Imasogie for the Edo-South PDP caucus, he said the party was constitutionally empowered to challenge its defeat at the tribunal.
“We appreciate the fact that both the party and our candidate have the constitutional right to challenge the result of the election at the tribunal and the court of law.
“Being very conscious that a child deprived of his constitutional rights has a right to seek justice, we are fully in support of our candidate’s resolve to challenge the election results and the eligibility of the qualification of his main opponent (Adams Oshiomhole) of the Action Congress of Nigeria, in court and at the tribunal.”
But yesterday, former deputy governor and Edo-South Senatorial Leader of the party, Lucky Imasuen, disassociated himself from the meeting, saying the convener “does not have the right and authority to convene the forum nor was he instructed to do so by the party. Edo-South PDP Senatorial District declares such clandestine meeting illegal, unholy, inconsequential and null and void.”
Similarly, the state PDP Publicity Secretary, Matthew Uroghide, said the decision not to go to the tribunal was taken by the National Executive Committee of the party, adding that the party members bent on contesting Oshiomhole’s re-election would not be stopped.
Urhoghide said some of the members now fighting to upturn the election result ought to have worked hard for victory when it mattered most during the election.
“That decision flows from the national body of the party and that was why our statement was issued by the state party chairman (Chief Dan Orbih). It is only the state chairman that is a member of the NEC and that is why I don’t want to comment much on the matter,” he said.
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