- Dan Orbih, New PDP Fight for Control
Barely seven months to the 2023 General Elections which kicks off next February, the political gladiators in the Edo State chapter are still baying at each other in what is increasingly bearing the hallmark of a rat race where only the fittest fit in.
The party’s primary which held in May may have come and gone but the echoes of the commotion which marred the exercise are still reverberating as the different actors in the feuding factions are still laying claim to the party’s tickets for the different offices.
The genesis of the crisis had to do with the perceived marginalization of the new members who consists of the 18 local government areas executive council and the state executive council who left the APC with Governor Obaseki to the PDP.
The tug of war between the two camps is showing no sign of abating as the tussle for the party tickets for the three senatorial, the nine House of Representatives
and 24 House of Assembly seats is presently the subject of a legal tangle between loyalists of Governor Godwin Obaseki and Chief Dan Orbih, the South South zonal national vice chairman of the party.
Against the backdrop of these rising tempers, Ayu
had set up a committee which was headed by Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom but the “irreconcilliables failed to reconcile” and dug deeper into their trenches, despite the determined efforts to settle the tiff.
The heart of the matter has to do with the parallel primaries of the party for the different positions by the two feuding factions. Both insist that they are real and control the levers of power while the other is counterfeit and of no consequence.
For supporters of Governor Obaseki who emerged as candidates in the parallel primary of the PDP, their hopes may have been dashed, albeit temporary, following a ruling by Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court, Abuja which stopped the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) from recognizing or accepting ad-hocs delegates produced by the governor’s faction of the pat in the state.
Justice Ekwo who gave the order in a suit filed by 581 delegates elected on April 30th held that PDP and other defendants in the suit are bound by Section 84 (5) of the Electoral Act 2022 as well as Section 15 of the PDP Constitution relating to delegates elections.
The trial judge declared the Ad-hoc delegates produced by Chief Orbih’s faction of the party as the authentic and must be recognized and accepted.
In suit No FHC/Abj/ CS/598/2022 through their five representatives, Hon. Monday Osagie, Hon.Reuben Ekhosuehi, Hon. Adeyanba Osaro, Hon. Magdalene Osawe and Hon Imariabe Oghogho, the defendants are PDP national chairman, Dr. Iyorchia Ayu, Senator Samuel Anyanwu, Umar Bature and INEC who are listed as first to fifth defendants respectively.
Counsel to the plaintiffs, Dr. John Musa, SAN asked the court to determine whether PDP in view of Section 84 (5) of the Electoral Act 2022 and Section 15 of the PDP constitution can jettison their election monitored by INEC for another one conducted in violation of the provisions of the relevant laws.
They also wanted the court to determine whether the defendants can on their own jettison the authentic delegates for others whose purported election is unknown to any law.
After a thorough look at the documentary evidence which included the report of the electoral umpire on its monitoring of the April 30th delegates election, Justice Ekwo agreed with the plaintiffs that they were validly and legally elected as authentic Ad-hoc delegates for Edo State chapter of the PDP.
The court held that the role of INEC in Primary election, Congress and Convention monitoring are statutory and Constitutional and must therefore be strictly adhered to by all political parties.
The court said that going against the elections of the plaintiffs will amount to a brazen violation of laws that are not ambiguous, an action, which no court must allow to stand.
Justice Ekwo therefore issued an order of injunction against first to fourth defendants restraining them from tampering with the plaintiffs list having been duly elected in the Congress of the party held on April 30th.
The court also issued order of perpetual injunctions against the 1st to 4th defendants stopping them from conducting any other congress with the purpose of replacing the plaintiffs.
Justice Ekwo issued a mandatory order of injunction against INEC stopping it from recognizing or accepting any delegates list other than the one produced by PDP’S congress of April 30th where plaintiffs emerged as Ad-hoc delegates.
Political pundits had predicted right from the start that the amity between the aborigines as the self styled legacy members of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) referred to themselves in Edo State and the new new from the All Progressives Congress (APC) will surely turn to amity going by the antecedent of the dramatis personae.
The centre can no longer hold as anarchy is now the order of the day among the feuding cast of characters.
Currently, there are three competing camps hustling to take control of the soul of the party in the state. While the Bloc which is mostly composed of the old guards is anchored by Chief Dan Orbih, the South South national zonal vice-chairman of the PDP, the second is supervised by the state chairman, Dr. Anthony Aziegbemi and the third force which are made up of defectors from the APC and coordinated by Governor Godwin Obaseki.
For Dr. Aziegbemi, navigating through a middle path between Governor Obaseki, who defected from the APC in the run up to the 2020 governorship election when he fell out with his erstwhile benefactor, former Governor Adams Oshiomhole, and Chief Orbih seemed to be the best option.
The face off which was initially thought to be a cold war between the two political gladiators is fast turning hot in the run up to the 2023 election except something urgent is done by the national leadership of the main opposition party to cool it down.
The tense showdown may well affect its fortunes as the situation is in strict defiance of the old adage which warned that a house divided against itself collapses sooner than later.
