The All Progressives Congress has announced its intention to capitalize on the internal crisis within the Peoples Democratic Party in Edo State, ahead of the September 21 governorship election.
According to The PUNCH, this strategy was confirmed in separate interviews with Edo APC Chairman, Jarret Tenebe, and the party’s Woman Leader, Mrs. Patricia Okoebor-Benson.
The PDP recently expelled former deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, and National Vice Chairman, South-South, Dan Orbih, for alleged anti-party activities. Despite this, the PDP maintains that Shaibu and Orbih’s removal will not impact their chances in the upcoming election.
APC leaders, however, view the expulsion as advantageous for their candidate, Senator Monday Okphebolo. Tenebe explained that the APC is exploring every possible avenue to benefit from the PDP’s crisis, including wooing the expelled members to join their ranks.
Tenebe stated, “The thing is that every political party, once an election like this is coming, will want problems in the other party for them to benefit. And if it happens the way things are going (in Edo PDP), I am praying that we will be the ultimate beneficiary of the entire process.
“The truth is that a sensible party will want to hold on to their best hands. These people they are trying to do away with include the South-South Vice Chairman of the PDP (Orbih), an honourable member who has served in the House of Reps for eight years and also a governorship aspirant of the party (Ihama). You can also talk about the deputy governor who they foolishly impeached when a major election was coming.
“So I believe and pray for the matter not to be settled so that we can cash in on it because if we have these calibres of people in our party, then the PDP would not have peace in this governorship election coming up in Edo.”
Okoebor-Benson echoed this sentiment, stating that the APC stands to gain from the internal strife within the PDP. “I can assure you it is a win-win situation for the APC. With them (Shaibu, Ihama and Orbih), it is an advantage. For me, I don’t know about the Labour Party and whatever candidate they are presenting. But I can tell you that Asue Ighodalo (PDP candidate) is not a politician.
“The APC is winning this election come September 21. The PDP could be spending the government money for all we know. But the people have had enough of Obaseki in the state. They are wiser now,” she assured.
However, the camp of the PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, disagreed with this perspective. PDP Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, acknowledged that the expulsion of Orbih was controversial within the party but insisted that it would not harm their electoral prospects.
He said, “We collectively are not in support of the decision taken at the state level. A few of us felt it was the way to go. But I am not one of those though. I would have loved people like Dan Orbih to be persuaded well enough. I have spoken in times past to that effect. I don’t see any reason why a factor like him in the South-South would be lost in that manner. I feel it is a minus for us.
“As for the former deputy governor, I do not want to glorify him too much. He saw to it, knew the tide was against him and decided to play to the gallery. If you have a boss like Obaseki who was determined to rubbish you, you need to tread carefully. We saw what he was doing and some of us were concerned about him.
“There was no way you would fight your boss in the manner he was going. Can you imagine Vice President Kashim Shettima fighting Tinubu in such a manner? How far will that take him? It is not politics of ideology and principles we are playing. It is politics of survival. So I saw him deploy too many arsenals against his boss and knew it was only going to be a question of time because he wasn’t going to survive it.
“For me, it is good riddance to bad rubbish. He doesn’t have the electoral capital. But for Dan Orbih, a chairman of Edo State on two consecutive terms and later South-South chairman, there is no denying the fact that he is a factor to reckon with indeed. Therefore, some of us feel terrible to lose him. But I don’t think he will want to work against his own party. What does he stand to gain from that?”
