March 10, (THEWILL)- Two weeks to the kick-off of campaign in the September 21, 2024 Governorship Election in Edo State, the governing Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its main rival, the All Progressives Congress, APC, are battling internal conflicts that may pose an obstacle to their smooth take-off.
For the PDP, the lingering supremacy battle between Governor Godwin Obaseki and his truculent deputy, Philips Shaibu, boiled over mid-last week when the State House of Assembly initiated an impeachment process against the latter.
Shaibu was given seven days to reply to the allegation levelled against him by 21 out of 24 lawmakers who signed the March 5 letter addressed to him. The accusations are mainly two-fold: leaking of official secrets and perjury.
Shaibu is accused of leaking of official secrets through the July 2023 suit he filed at the Federal High Court, Abuja Division, against the three arms of government of Edo state, “contrary to his oath of office to keep official secrets in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic and the Official Secret Law, 2013…”
The other allegation, which borders on perjury, deals with the same suit in which he, “alleged that he was prevented from attending the state Executive meeting of 3rd of May and 19th of July, respectively, knowing same to be false but with intent to bringing the Edo State Government to public odium and opprobrium; an act bordering on perjury and is thereby guilty of gross misconduct.”
The seven days started counting on last Wednesday with Tuesday this week as terminal day.
As at press time on Saturday, there was no indication that Shaibu would respond as he maintained his defiance that increased with his conduct of a parallel party primary a fortnight ago and declared himself the party’s governorship candidate, followed it up with a trip to the party’s Abuja headquarters last week to demand a Certificate of Return that the party has given to its official candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
Remarkably, he had threatened to go to court to “recover his mandate.”
But the party said it remained unfazed by the deputy governor’s legal threat.
Responding to this legal threat, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the PDP was not worried about the warning of the deputy governor of Edo State, Shaibu and “his continual campaign on the social media.”
He said, “We are not worried. We wish the deputy governor well on his journey to the court. We are waiting for him. We cannot continue to run this party like this. Is he the only one who contested the primary? Why is he going on like this?
“There were 10 of them that bought the form. The rest have accepted the reconciliation move of the party. Have you heard any of them say they were coming to the party to ask for a certificate of return? This is a recipe for a crisis. We cannot waste our time if someone is not ready for reconciliation. We have a legal department.”
One of the 10 aspirants on Friday reared his head. Just when the Shaibu threat was being snuffed out with the impeachment notice, another aggrieved aspirant who felt muscled out of the primary election, Anselm Ojezua, on Friday filed a suit at the Federal High Court in Abuja against the party.
The suit with No: THC/ABJCS/304Q is between Ojezua as Plaintiff and Asue Ighodalo, the Peoples Democratic Party, and the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, contended that the primary election was held in disregard to the rules of the game.
On the matter involving Shaibu, investigation shows that the party, having exhausted its internal mechanism to reconcile him to its decision that, having met the legal and party rules for the conduct of a party primary election, Asue Ighodalo remains its official candidate and it is prepared to protect that mandate.
The party’s decision has strengthened Governor Obaseki’s hand to move against his deputy so as to avoid the distraction that Shaibu’s continued defiance would cause the party, going into campaign for the governorship.
Meanwhile, a few party officials have raised their voices against the impeachment move, calling for more talks of reconciliation so as to enter the campaign as one united house.
Notable among them is the publicity secretary of the party in the South-South, Bishop Ari, who, at the weekend, lamented that “it is a bad development and indeed a sign of failure of the leadership of the party in Edo State to allow internal political disagreements to snowball into a major crisis that could jeopardise the chances of the party in the forthcoming governorship election in the state.”
Officials of the deputy governor failed to respond to questions sent by THEWILL.
Like the PDP, the APC is faced with an internal crisis that snowballed from the final primary election which threw up Senator Monday Okpebholo as its candidate.
The second runner-up in the primary election and member of the House of Representatives, Dennis Idahosa, on March 4, wrote to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, urging it not to recognise Senator Okpebholo as the party’s candidate because the rerun poll where he emerged was illegal. Rather, he insisted that the February 17, 2024 poll, which he (Idahosa) won, was the only poll known to law.
On March 4, he notified the INEC of a lawsuit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/274/2024 between Idahosa and Okpebholo, which prevented the electoral umpire from accepting the latter as the party’s candidate.
The APC and INEC are joined in the suit which is being handled by his counsel, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN), who is demanding that Idahosa be recognised as the Edo APC governorship candidate.
Although the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo State, Dr Anugbum Onuoha, had stated that the February 17, 2024 primary election of the APC that he witnessed was the one that held at the Lushvill Hotel and Suites, which produced Senator Okpebholo, and not the one that was supervised by Governor Hope Uzodinma that produced Hon Idahosa, the court may have to discharge the suit to get APC off a legal bind and clear the path for it to begin electioneering without tears. It was the party’s National Working Committee that declared the February 17, primary election inconclusive and carried out a rerun.
APC officials did not reply to messages sent to their phones nor answer phone calls. The following week remains crucial for both parties to set their houses in order before the campaign kicks off in April.
About the Author
Amos Esele is the Deputy Editor of THEWILL Newspaper. He has over two decades of experience on the job.
