P
ProfRem
Guest
Barely three weeks to the September 10 governorship election in Edo State, the two factions of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state have engaged in war of words over who is the authentic candidate of the party.
The Ahmed Makarfi faction of the PDP produced Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as its governorship candidate while that of Ali Modu Sheriff produced Matthew Iduoriyekemwen.
Iduoriyekemwen is from Ikpoba Okhai, one of the largest local government areas in the state, while Ize-Iyamu is from Orhiomwon.
The factional crisis has allowed the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki, to harvest more of the PDP leaders across the 192 wards of the state.
A total 4,536 aggrieved PDP members in Egor and Ikpoba Okhai LGAs decamped to the APC, just as the AREWA group in Edo, led by the President-General, Alh.Sahabi Aliu Umar, endorsed Obaseki as their candidate.
Leader of the PDP defectors in Egor, Mr. Promise Igbinevbo, said the PDP had deceived them over the years and that the party was yet to shed its old ways in spite of attempts to rebrand it.
He said: “We are here to bury PDP today. We were deceived by some political leaders of the PDP all these years. Today, they call them new PDP but I realized that old PDP remains. I later realized that they are like the leopard which doesn’t change its skin.
The Ahmed Makarfi faction of the PDP produced Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as its governorship candidate while that of Ali Modu Sheriff produced Matthew Iduoriyekemwen.
Iduoriyekemwen is from Ikpoba Okhai, one of the largest local government areas in the state, while Ize-Iyamu is from Orhiomwon.
The factional crisis has allowed the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its governorship candidate, Mr Godwin Obaseki, to harvest more of the PDP leaders across the 192 wards of the state.
A total 4,536 aggrieved PDP members in Egor and Ikpoba Okhai LGAs decamped to the APC, just as the AREWA group in Edo, led by the President-General, Alh.Sahabi Aliu Umar, endorsed Obaseki as their candidate.
Leader of the PDP defectors in Egor, Mr. Promise Igbinevbo, said the PDP had deceived them over the years and that the party was yet to shed its old ways in spite of attempts to rebrand it.
He said: “We are here to bury PDP today. We were deceived by some political leaders of the PDP all these years. Today, they call them new PDP but I realized that old PDP remains. I later realized that they are like the leopard which doesn’t change its skin.