PDP chieftain pledges support for APC in Edo guber election 

A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in Edo State, Prince Kassim Afegbua, on Sunday vowed to join forces with the All Progressives Congress (APC) to ensure the defeat of Governor Godwin Obaseki in the September 19 governorship election in the state.

Afegbua, who is a former Commissioner for Information in Edo State, in a chat with journalists, knocked the PDP for offering its ticket to Obaseki barely a week after he joined the party.

He wondered how the governor whom the party once branded a failure suddenly merited the ticket so much so that all three governorship aspirants in the state stepped down for him.

He said: “We will join hands collectively with the APC candidate to ensure that Godwin Obaseki does not return. I am PDP member, but I will vote APC. A man with the humility of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu is better than a governor who fights everyone who disagrees with him.

“Edo has become too polarised over avoidable and needless battles. Let us have a new leadership that will usher in quiet and peace to everyone. The noises from Obaseki’s aspiration had become too polluted and cannot be in the best interest of anyone.”

The ex-commissioner also faulted the decision of one of the aspirants, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, to withdraw from the governorship race.

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Afegbua added: “Hon. Ogbeide-Ihama got swallowed up by the politics of money that has become the bane of Nigerian politics. He was ambushed by Governor Obaseki’s desperation who was ready to use any amount to railroad people in the party to buy into his aspiration.

“How can someone who did not buy nomination form, who came in when sale of forms had closed, screening had closed, congresses for the election of delegates had closed, and all of a sudden, because he has state resources to spend, all rules were bent to accommodate him and made to become the candidate?

“Only yesterday, Edo PDP scored Obaseki F9 in its sectoral analyses, and today, the same man who scored F9 all through in terms of performance has suddenly become the head of the PDP corner.

“A governor who PDP challenged in 2016 for discrepancies in his submissions has suddenly become the candidate of the party. How do you explain such scenario?

“For me, I still hold the view that Ogbeide-Ihama had better opportunity to pull through, if they had allowed Obaseki to settle for another party.

“It would have been a matter of three candidates and PDP would have had a better grip. I was shocked to see all three aspirants stepped down in the face of pressure. Even Kenneth Imasuangbon who was shouting on top of his voice that he would pull through, buckled suddenly and swallowed his misplaced pride.”

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