Lucky Obukohwo, Reporting
The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Sunday conducted its delegates congress to elect three people from the ward that would participate in the February 22 governorship primary.
The exercise went ahead despite the stepping down of the chairman of the three man committee headed by the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde as the governor of Enugu State, Peter Mbah who is said to be the deputy chairman was present in the state to conduct the primary where he commended the large turnout of members of the party.
Speaking to party faithful at the George Idah Primary School, Benin City which is the collation centre for Ward 2, he said “This is democracy where our people come to exercise their franchise, we appreciate this turnout, our party is known for its principles which is fairness, equity and justice. I wish you to all conduct yourselves properly as we hold this election.”
In Ward 7 at Ugbekun Primary School in Ikpoba-Okha local government, Dr. Major Itemowe led others to conduct the exercise while in Oluku Ward, Hon Kunle Koya from Lagos state conducted the exercise.
Speaking to journalists in his Ward 4 Collation Centre, Idia College, Governor Obaseki said the crisis in the party was being over-hyped and that it would not affect the outcome of the governorship election.
According to him “You can see from the crowd here, that it is a lot of success, a huge turn out, we had over 600 people coming out to participate here, our people are politically inclined and we are happy with this turn out to elect delegates for our gubernatorial primary and we are also expecting this huge turnout in the main election.”
On the resignation of Makinde, Obaseki said “It is unfortunate that Makinde withdrew, there are three governors and he is only one of three. So, withdrawing does not really remove the credibility of the process and it is not just the process and what makes a process credible is the quality of the participation and you can see for yourself.
So, it is unfortunate that Governor Makinde had to take such decision but I hope that all our efforts to continue to unify the party and pacify all players would continue.
We are not deterred at all, we are going to make sure that PDP plays its role in the politics of this country.”
Speaking on the non participation of members of the Legacy Coalition of the PDP, he said “You cannot have a hundred percent, clearly you can see the crowd here. When we were in APC before we joined the PDP, we didn’t have these numbers. So clearly, the people we met in the party are still in the party.
“The crisis is hyped, it is not as fundamental as it is made to look on ground, there is very little crisis, the crisis is fanned from outside and our people are smarter than that. You will see during the main election, we are not going to allow ourselves to be sold.”