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PDP chieftains to Obaseki: you haven’t earned leadership
…say “Governors’ as Party Leaders not Constitutional”
Published by The Nation.
A group in the Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the Defenders Forum (DF), has objected to a remark by Governor Godwin Obaseki that those against his leadership and actions are free to leave the party.
In a statement by its coordinator, Ken Ekpe, the group described the governor’s remarks as ridiculous.
It challenged him to quote a section of the party’s constitution that conferred the leadership of the party on him by force.
Obaseki had, at a meeting with some party stakeholders comprising his aides and the PDP state chairman, claimed leadership of what he called the harmonized PDP in the state.
“First, we want to affirm that we are ignorant of any harmonized PDP in Edo State, given the fact that PDP executives can only emerge, according to the constitution of our great party, from elections. These elections were done before Governor Obaseki joined us and he cannot sit in his office with his fellow former All Progressives Congress (APC) travelers to harmonize what he did not bring to birth.
“Second, we have heard and read the governor repeatedly claiming that he is the leader of the party merely because he is governor. Yes, while we revere our governors as leaders, we say that this is not a constitutional fact and it is not assumed by force.
“For more than one year, we have seen how Governor Obaseki and his erstwhile APC enforcers have ridden roughshod over our party as he and his ex-APC people have not added any value to our brand but rather fought vainly to divide us, but to no avail. “We thus challenge him and his emissaries to quote the specific section of the constitution that has made him the leader of the party in Edo State.
“Based on that, the great majority of party members who have refused his plans to forcefully restructure our executives at all levels serve him the notice that we are not leaving our party for him.”
“It should shock Governor Obaseki that the anthem in the Edo State chapter of the PDP today is that he should take his government and leave our party alone. The handouts he is giving are not enough for us to mortgage our collective interest in a strong and united party that has won plaudits across the nation for having been the most vibrant opposition party in the days of yore.”
