Obaseki plots total crushing of Oshiomhole in APC

Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State may have embarked on renewed political hostility with former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomhole, towards the total elimination of the former governor from the ruling party. The governor is engaging in the renewed political intransigence with his successor simultaneously with subtle arrangements to dump the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the platform he contested and won the November 2020 governorship election ion Edo State after being frustrated out of the APC by Oshiomhole.

Governor Obaseki has been linked to surreptitious negotiation with APC leaders for a return to the party. It was gathered that in the negotiation, Governor Obaseki was said to have told the APC leaders to handover party structure in Edo State to former APC national chairman and former Edo State Governor, Chief John Odigie Oyegun. Odigie-Oyegun had remained an ardent supporter of Governor Obaseki, even after he had defected from the APC to the PDP. Oyegun stood in the gap for Obaseki in the power tussle with Oshiomhole during the November 2020 governorship election.

Apparently, Obaseki wants to completely edge Oshiomhole out of the APC.

The Edo governor has remained unsettled since his inability to hijack the PDP structures after the governorship election.

Obaseki had demanded that the PDP structures be handed over to him as leader of the party in Edo State. He had, thus, intended to dissolve Executives from the ward to the local governments and the state. This was stoutly resisted by PDP leaders in Edo State. The PDP leaders argued that there are laid down rules for the dissolution of the party structures. They noted that the governor concluded on the dissolution of the party structures without consultation.

Governor Obaseki is confronting the PDP with winner-takes-it-all impulse, seeking to relegate established PDP leaders who had consolidated the party in the state, to secondary importance.

The PDP leaders had further argued that the governor won the Edo governorship election on the existing structures; so, why does him want to dissolve the structures from the ward, local government to the state.

The party leaders stated that the PDP has been in opposition for 12 years, and has won the presidential elections, as well as elections into the state and federal legislatures. The PDP currently has two senators in the Ninth National Assembly.

Governor Obaseki is perceived to be negotiating return to the APC as the taking over of the PDP in Edo State is becoming an impossibility. However, PDP leaders had conceded to the governor that he could nominate some principal officers of the state party for adjustments and representation of his interest in the party leadership. They vowed to resist holistic take over of the PDP structures.

Meanwhile, Governor Obaseki negotiating the handover of the APC structures to Oyegun, who has always been in support of the governor, could be looking for facile means to ease Oshiomhole out of the ruling APC before 2023.

Obaseki had, however, in Abuja on Tuesday, denied any intention or plot to dump the PDP and return to the APC. He reiterated his resolve to remain in the PDP and rebuild the party towards 2023. Governor Obaseki is currently the Chairman of the PDP E-Registration for new party members across the country.