Nine out of the Ten Peoples Democratic Party PDP Governorship Aspirants in Edo state have rejected the February 4th, 2024 ward congress conducted across the state to elect adhoc delegates ahead of the party primary on February 22, 2024. This was contained in Hon Anselm Ojezua’s address to journalists in Benin City.
According to Ojezua, who spoke on behalf of the nine aggrieved Aspirants which include the State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, said that those assigned from the party’s National Secretariat to conduct the congress failed to hold meetings with the aspirants as stipulated in the party’s guidelines. He described the process as the worst in the conduct of party congress.
In his reaction, a former Secretary to Akoko-Edo Local Government, Mr. Joe Adeleye expressed surprise at the complaints of the nine aspirants. He queried: “How could we have voted for those who never visited us to solicit for support”. Mr. Adeleye challenged Ojezua to point at any PDP leader he visited in Akoko-Edo for consultation and support.
In his own reaction, the SSA to the Edo State Governor, Hon Solomon Taiwo, questioned the nine aspirants’ work rate in the build up to the party’s ward congress . Taiwo likened their approach towards the ward election to the suicidal strategy of attrition employed by General William Westmoreland of the US Army who oversaw, between 1964 and 1968 the US Army’s colossal defeat against the Viet-Con and the North Vietnamese Army.
Notable PDP leaders across the state affirmed that the nine aggrieve Aspirants did not engage and consult with the party’s relevant stakeholders and admonished them to embrace and respect democratic tenets which allow for freedom of choice, association,free, fair and level playing ground for all players.
