The Secretary of the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, Hilary Otsu, has said Governor Godwin Obaseki and the National Working Committee should be blamed in the absence of the party’s candidate in the upcoming Edo State gubernatorial election.
He said this in an interview he granted the News Agency of Nigeria in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja on Thursday.
Otsu was reacting to the prospects of the party failing to have a candidate for the election given the crisis that trailed its ward congresses election.
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 Congresses Election Committee, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, 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 PDP in Edo State.
He said: “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 for it as far as Edo 2024 is concerned.”
The Secretary also said that the State Executive Committee was not satisfied with the ongoing process to pick the state’s party governorship candidate.
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According to him, no one can be satisfied with a process which he alleged is flawed from the start.
He added: “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 10 have protested, coupled with the fact that they were excluded.”
Otsu said their reactions could not be faulted given the huge investment they made, including about N40 million each just to buy forms.
