July 04, (THEWILL) – The rumoured defection of Governor Godwin Obaseki from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to Labour has divided members of the governing party in the state.
There are two groups currently engaging in a supremacy battle for the control of the party in the state. One faction is led by Governor Obaseki and other by a former Chairman of the party in the state and currently the National Vice Chairman, South-South, Chief Dan Orbih.
After much in-fighting for control of the party’s structure in the state, Orbih recently emerged victorious with his group’s approval by the National Working Committee (NWC), leaving the governor’s faction fuming and threatening to leave.
THEWILL reliably gathered that since the news of the governors’ move broke last week, some leaders of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), who defected alongside Obaseki to the PDP, have taken positions in the Labour Party, “ to prepare the grounds”, for a final movement of the group, which had been aggrieved over the reluctance of the state PDP to absorb them fully since their defection in 2020.
Governor Nyesom Wike, who publicly had a shouting match with his Edo counterpart over political differences, had offered support to Orbih’s faction, which recently got a court injunction to consolidate its dominance.
Not to take matters lying low, Obaseki has also moved to vacate the court injunction. THEWILL gathered that the governor is very hopeful of overcoming Orbih’s hold and get the party to recongnise its faction in due course. Obaseki is said to see this likely window of reverse fortune as the reason to remain in the PDP.
Meanwhile, leaders of the party, including the presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar, who supports Obaseki’s position as leader of the party in the state, are said to be willing to resolve the matter as part of the general move to reconcile Wike with Atiku and to the party’s decision to make Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State its vice-presidential candidate.
A 17-member committee, which was set up to beg aggrieved Wike over the VP saga, is said to be prepared to resolve the Edo factional crisis, too.
The factional crisis, many local and national leaders fear, may give an opportunity for the APC to launch a strong bid for Edo votes at the presidential poll in February 2023.
For now, however, the opposition party is still being tagged by the 2021 September governorship campaign slogan ‘Edo No Bi Lagos’ , which was a directed at the personality of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to remind him that his political grip on Lagos cannot be extended to Edo State. Now that the former Lagos governor has become the presidential candidate of the APC, it is yet to be seen how far the slogan can carry PDP’s dominance except the warring factions mend their fences and do not gamble with their popularity in the state.
After all, the factions, if left to stand, are evenly divided in the three senatorial zones with Obaseki holding sway in Edo Central, while Orbih reigns in Edo South and former Edo governor, Adams Oshiomhole who appears to have regained some lost popularity after emerging the Senatorial candidate of the APC for Edo North, rules the roost in that zone.
The former APC National Chairman snatched the senatorial ticket from the incumbent senator, Francis Alimiekhana, who had to defect to the PDP in anger.
As a sign of things to come, a former political adviser to Obaseki, Ojo Asein returned to the APC, a move Oshiomhole described as an indication that the APC would soon bounce back in the state.
