Edo 2020: GODWIN OBASEKI OF PDP IS 4+4 IN EDO STATE
Godwin Obaseki is the current serving Governor of Edo State.
He became Governor of the State on the platform of All Progressives Congress…APC. After diligently serving in the cabinet and administration of his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole.
Today, Obaseki want to seek re-election to go back for a second term in office, but his former Party, the APC, headed by his predecessor as National Chairman, though now suspended at his Ward level and same affirmed by a court of competent jurisdiction, has denied him of the opportunity to express that intention on its platform.
A former member of PDP who has now moved to APC, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, has been given the ticket of APC to contest the governorship position on the platform of the APC.
On a converse note, Godwin Obaseki has himself refused to be daunted by the suppressive efforts of his former master and leader, but has now decamped from the APC to the PDP.
He is currently working hard to win the support of the officers, stakeholders and members of the Party both in Edo State and outside it ahead of the party governorship primary election scheduled to hold on Thursday 25 June 2020.
Given all the prevailing facts, figures and variables in the unfolding political development in Edo State today, His Excellency, Godwin Obaseki, the Governor of Edo State is very hopeful to wining the gubernatorial ticket of PDP and become the candidate of the Party in the build up to the governorship election holding in Edo State on the 22nd of September 2020.
Godwin Obaseki is indeed very hopeful of clinching the Party ticket because the party structure in the State is happy to inherit a sitting Governor with all the attendant benefits of office and capacity to win election whích is the ultimate desire of any political Party .
As at today, Wednesday 24 June 2020, almost all the aspirants for Governor on the platform of the PDP has stepped down on their ambition for Godwin Obaseki and collapsed their structures in support for Mr Obaseki.
Hope is indeed rising per second for Obaseki as all Edo PDP governorship aspirants have endorsed out of court settlement of matters that were previously instituted in court against Obaseki.
Even Justice Obile of the Federal High court Port Harcourt dívision has openly deníed the purported court order which had earlier restrained Godwin Obaseki from participating in the scheduled Edo State PDP governorship primary election.
Also on the judicial angle, a Federal High court sitting in Ekpoma, Edo State, has granted the participation of all cleared aspirants of the PDP in the Edo State governorship primary election.
Going by the points highlighted above, Mr Obaseki is as good as being the candidate of the PDP for the governorship election that will hold in Edo State later this year.
On the other hand, the challenger, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the APC, is turning out to be a liability for his Party and the electoral journey is becoming uninteresting and herculean.
It is now a matter of national mockery as Adams Oshiomhole, the former National Chairman of APC and the godfather of POI has been suspended by the APC structure in his Ward. The suspension was also recently affirmed by the Court of Appeal.
Following this development, the APC as a political party is obviously in deep crisis and speedily on its way to disintegration as many people within the Party now lay claim to the office of National Chairman in an Acting capacity. Also, many of its chieftains are now openly expressing their readiness out of pure dissatisfaction and grief, to dump the heavily troubled Party for the PDP.
Due to this terribly unhealthy situation in the Party, there are large scale protests by members of the Party calling for the dissolution of the National Working Committee. NWC of the Party. This will render the Party soulless!
The Police, few days ago, ceiled up the National Secretariat of the Party thereby preventing any activity to take place in the party national office. This is the height of official embarrassment given to an organization of such repute.
At the State level, the APC is progressively in disarray in Edo State as we speak.
There is a huge problem of integrity crisis both on the part of the governorship candidate and Adams Oshiomhole himself.
While Adams Oshiomhole is finding it difficult, if not impossible, to turn the music and campaign materials he had earlier issued against Ize-Iyamu few years ago where he had described him as a bad product, unfit to be appointed personality and unschooled, Ize-Iyamu himself is still facing a hugely lingering litigation in the court of law bothering on financial impropriety over some hugely unclear amount of fleece attributable to him when he was yet in PDP. The records are still there in the public domain.
Question to be answered today is how and with what will Oshiomhole campaign for Ize-Iyamu and the badly battered and highly factionalized APC in Edo State to ensure victory in the forthcoming election?
The Godwin Obaseki that is now in PDP has done well in his first tenure as Governor of Edo State. This is a fact known to majority of the people cutting across all political parties in Edo State so much so that it is a sociopolitical capital that is standing tall across the State in favour of the Governor.
It is a fact that Godwin Obaseki did not leave APC on the ground of impropriety, suspension, misconduct or act of disloyalty to the Party structure.
This explains the reason why the larger majority of the members of APC in Edo State accompanied him to PDP and this followership will indeed translate through their votes into electoral victory for Godwin Obaseki as Governor of Edo State for second term in office come September 2020.
While we await the gradual ticking of the clock to usher in the primary election morning of Thursday 25 June 2020, it is therefore our earnest and very sincere prayers, individually and collectively, for Godwin Obaseki to not only grab the ticket of PDP in Edo State, but consequently go ahead, in an assured manner, to win the governorship election later in the year as Governor of Edo State.
To God alone be all the glory.
–Edwin Okoh writes_ from Ozanogogo
