By Kolawole Ojebisi
Less than 24 hours afer his defection to the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), another threat to the re-election bid of Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki has surfaced in his new party, indicating that picking the PDP guber ticket in the state may not be a cakewalk for the governor.
Governor Obaseki who formally joined the PDP on Friday after dumping the All Progressives Congress (APC) was granted a waiver to contest at the party’s governorship primary.
Amid diplomatic moves by the party hierarchy for some aspirants to withdraw from the race to pave a smooth path for Obaseki’s emergence, one of the PDP governorship aspirants, Barr. Kenneth Imansuangbon who has long established himself in the Edo PDP before Obaseki’s Friday defection to the party has vowed not to step down for the governor.
Imansuangbon has bought PDP governorship nomination form alongside two other aspirants — Hon Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, (a young member of the House of Representatives from Oredo) and Mr Gideon Ikihine.
It would be recalled that Imansuangbon, popularly hailed as ‘Rice Man’ lost the APC governorship ticket to the incumbent Edo Governor in 2016.
To prevent another loss to Obaseki again, Imansuangbon has stuck to his guns, saying he is ready to contest the ticket with Obaseki, rather than let him be the party’s consensus candidate.
Speaking on why he would not step down for Obaseki, Imansuangbon stated that it would be a huge mistake for the party to hand over its ticket to Governor Godwin Obaseki.
Obaseki, he said, has reneged on many of his promises to the people of the state, insisting that he wields more political clout than him.
“There are security concerns everywhere. The roads are still bad and some members of the House of Assembly have not been inaugurated.
“Nobody has the kind of appeal that I have. You can sample the opinions of Edo people about the ‘Rice Man.’ Ninety per cent of Edo people want me to become governor. But a few elite who are not up to 0.5 per cent are standing in my way.
“But God will remove them for me to pass. If they manipulate the results, they will face the consequence. I told Oshiomhole when he brought Obaseki in 2016 that God would fight for me.
“Where are the godson and the godfather today? The crisis within the APC between the governor and Oshiomhole is as a result of the injustice they did to me. Nemesis has caught up with them. If the PDP does the same, there will be consequences.” he said.
Imansuangbon also said he has come a long way in his political career to sacrifice his political ambition for another politician, adding that giving it a thought alone “is preposterous.”
“The contemplation of me stepping down is preposterous. You can’t ask me to step down after my (political) struggle for the past 16 years.
“Why? How do I explain that to the people who laboured for me in the past 16 years? Even in the dream, I can’t have such a thought.
“Nobody should reach out to me. That is of no value to me. There is no advantage to him (Obaseki).
“Let there not be intimidation or any form of manipulation of the process by the leadership of the party at the national level.” he said.
Imansuangban, a former APC member contested alongside Engr. Chris Ogiemwonyi and Obaseki for the party’s governorship primary Obaseki in 2016 and lost.
But he refused to accept the outcome of the primary then, noting that the ballot figures recorded were electronically generated and not the true reflection of the voting pattern.
He later defected to the PDP to continue to pursue his governorship ambition, but the defection of Obaseki on Friday to the PDP has again thrown spanners into the works for him, something he has been talking tough on, calling for an open contest.
Meanwhile, The New Diplomat learnt part of the reasons why the PDP postponed its primary on Friday, for second time in 24 hours was to buy more time to enable it prevail over other aspirants to step down for Obaseki and allow him run for his re-election as the party’s candidate without much hassle.
On Saturday, Obaseki was at the Wadata Plaza, national headquarters of the PDP for the party’s governorship screening slated for Thursday, June 25.
Also, his rivals for the ticket, Gideon Ikhine, Ogbeide Ihama and Kenneth Imansuangbon, have all been screened by the committee ahead of the PDP primaries.
