Edo guber: Shaibu, eight others describe delegate election as nullity

Nine governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo state have opined that the party’s delegates election held in Edo State on Sunday is a nullity, saying the decline by the Chairman of the committee, Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo state to supervise the exercise was an indication that the process was compromised exercise.

Briefing journalists late Sunday, the aspirants alleged that the impunity in the PDP National Working Committee which they wanted Makinde to carry out was what they used Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu state who as the deputy chairman of the committee took over the responsibility to do.

Speaking on behalf of the nine aspirants, Anslem Ojezua, said Mbah called the deputy governor of the state, Comrade Philip Shaibu, that he had arrived in Benin and was awaiting the arrival of Governor Kefas of Taraba.

He said that Mbah demanded to meet with all the 10 aspirants for a briefing before the commencement of the Congress.

According to Ojezua, till 5 pm after the call, the nine of them had yet to hear from Governor Mbah and his team.

He said up till the time of the briefing, the nine of them had no access to the 5-man panel with 2 state governors as members.

“Between Friday and today (Sunday), we have seen three different ad-hoc electoral committee lists, first was the one that had His Excellency Seyi Makinde as Chairman, and Senator Manu as Secretary.

“A day after, we had yet another list with Seyi Makinde as chairman and one Pascal Adigwe as Secretary. Today (Sunday), we had yet a different list with Peter Mbah as chairman and Pascal Adigwe as secretary.

“We do know that the very first one must have been the one approved by the national working committee. We are reliably informed that the National Working Committee has not met since the last time they approved that list. Now we do not even know which one is which.”

Continuing: “Yesterday (Saturday), we wrote to Seyi Makinde about the observation we made and we were assured that they will provide us with a level playing field, and it was agreed that those who are going to officiate are going to be members of PDP from outside of Edo state.

“But we found that contrary to the list the party sent to INEC, another list was flying around with a prominent list of government officials from the Edo state government to perform very sensitive assignments in relation to this process.

“What is even worse is that the committee has not even arrived in Benin; we were later informed that he (Governor Seyi Makinde) has declined his appointment.”

Ojezua added: “It was only today (Sunday), that we were informed that Governor Mbah is now to take the position of the chairman. Governor Mbah didn’t come to Benin until this afternoon.

“We have been waiting for the committee to have the traditional meeting with us as stakeholders and aspirants. This congress is being organised for and as we speak nobody has invited us, we just heard a rumour.”