Plans By Edo State Governor, Deputy To Remain In PDP, Sponsor Aspirants In Another Party Unveiled 

PLANS are afoot by Edo State Governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki to passively remain the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) but sponsor his preferred aspirants in another party, it has emerged.

This plot is coming on the heels of an Abuja Federal High Court judgement which nullified any harmonization arrangements made by the governor between the old PDP members and those who decamped from the APC before the 2020 governorship election.

The court ruling dimmed the governor’s chances in gaining an upper hand in his duel against Chief Dan Orbih, the influential PDP leader who insists on the unconstitutionality of “harmonization” and has stood against plans by Governor Obaseki to topple the party’s leadership in Edo State.

Fearing the likely possibility of remaining on the margins for the 2023 contest, unable to nominate candidates for the various offices open for renewal, Governor Godwin Obaseki has reportedly activated a ‘Plan B’ which would see him sponsor the aspiration of his loyalists on another party platform such as AA or SDP.

His strategists have recommended zeroing in on the forthcoming local government elections in the state, considering the disproportionate influence the state government wields in the conduct of the elections.

The intention, according to impeccable sources, is for “Osadebey Avenue” to facilitate a clean sweep of the adopted party and the Governor’s loyalists at the polls, decimating and hollowing out the PDP in the process.

Following that, the rigged in stooges would be expected to use their positions as Council Chairmen, Vice Chairmen, Secretaries, Councilors, Supervisory Councilors among others to build a grassroots structure and prepare the ground for the electoral bid of other loyalists of the Governor in 2023.

This is all due to the apprehension of the fact that Chief Dan Orbih’s faction is not likely to give an opportunity to the Obaseki’s group to emerge in the primaries.

Governor Obaseki has chosen to remain in the PDP despite his growing loss of interest and active desire to rip the party apart, because he is keen on avoiding the fate of Chief David Umahi, the beleaguered Ebonyi State Governor who left the PDP for the APC but now faces the prospect of an ejection from office following a damaging court judgement calling for his sack over the cross-carpeting.

The fear became real when Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State remarked in his verbal destruction of Governor Obaseki that should he elope with the PDP’s mandate to another party, his head would be “shaved”.