Trouble is brewing in the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party. The state party chairman, Tony Aziegbemi, has petitioned the PDP National Chairman, Uche Secondus, alleging a plot by Governor Godwin Obaseki, to dissolve elected party executives.
In a letter to Secondus, a copy of which was made public, in Benin, on Tuesday, Aziegbemi and the State PDP Secretary, Hillary Otsu, explained that the party executive, held an emergency meeting of the expanded State Working Committee to review a purported meeting of some leaders of the party with the governor.
According to the petitioners, a handful of party leaders met with the governor in the Edo State Government House where they resolved to dissolve the entire party structure in the state.
The letter read in part, “The expanded State Working Committee and Local Government Chairmen of the Edo State PDP reject in its entirety, the proposal by the above-mentioned meeting to dissolve the legitimately elected executive committee members of the PDP at the ward, local government and state levels.”
They also alleged that those who convened the meeting with the governor wanted to ambush the state party chairman considering the fact that he has only three leaders as against the 10 who came to join the PDP along with Governor Obaseki.
The letter further read, “We hereby reiterate to the National Executive Committee of our party that the issue of dissolution of executive committees in Edo State is ‘subjudice’ and it will be an act of contempt of court to revisit it by the Party.
“The genesis of this looming crisis results from the acquiescence of the National Working Committee members who negotiated Godwin Obaseki’s movement to PDP, to reach a verbal or written agreement on the integration of the new members vis-a-vis the sharing of appointments, after the elections had been won.”
