Ahead of the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, leaders and stakeholders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo South Senatorial District, under the aegis of the PDP Legacy Group, met on Friday to demand fair treatment from Governor Godwin Obaseki before the election proper.
The Edo South PDP Legacy group, which noted that it had been badly treated in the last four years by the Governor Obaseki-led administration, reiterated that it remained the aboriginal PDP in the district, just as it lamented that none of the promises Governor Obaseki made to them when he came begging for the governorship ticket of the party in 2020, when he was chased out of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the party under which he won the 2016 election.
Rising from a Leaders/Stakeholders meeting held at the Bishop Kelly Pastoral Centre, Benin City, the Edo South PDP Legacy group posited that it would no longer fold its hands and allow Governor Obaseki to short-change the group the way he did in 2020, when the governor appointed the deputy governor, the Secretary to the State Government (SSG), and the Chief of Staff (CoS) from the group that followed Obaseki from the APC to the PDP.
Attended by leaders and executive members from the seven local government areas that make up the Edo South Senatorial District, the group added that it would give Governor Obaseki time to come and tell the group what was in it in the coming dispensation before it would take a decision on how it would take its destiny in its own hands.
In the meeting, which was attended by the leader of the Edo South PDP Legacy group and former member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, former Senator Roland Owie, the Chairman, Edo South Senatorial District, Mr. Nosa Ogieva-Okunbor, Mr. Nosa Adams,and a host of others, the group said that Governor Obaseki had not demonstrated gratitude for what the group did to help him in 2020 as the governor had cornered all offices without conceding one to the Legacy group.
Addressing the crowd, Ogbeide-Ihama traced how, in June 2020, he was prevailed upon by the leaders of the district from across all strata of life to step down his governorship ambition to save the governor from political disgrace and personal humiliation when he was disqualified by the APC.
“You were all there at the stadium when, in June 2020, I was prevailed upon to step down from the governorship race and save Governor Obaseki from political and public disgrace. I listened to the elders say that the governor should be allowed to complete his second term.
“I stepped down and played my role by taking Obaseki around the stadium. One naira I did not take. One naira, the governor did not offer. Maybe if he had paid billions, he would not have treated us like this.
“During the election, I was his party agent. I slept at the collation centre, and when the result was out, I took it to him personally. I protected the ticket I freely gave to him. Everything he said he would do, he has not done.
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“I have refused to say anything since 2020. I told our leaders, and they said that the governor doesn’t listen to anyone. He has not kept to any single agreement as he took all the positions: governor, deputy governor, SSG, and Chief of Staff. In 2024, he will again take the governorship and the deputy governorship. Did we escort him to politics?” Ogbeide-Ihama asked.
The former governorship aspirant stressed that “as aboriginal PDP, the Legacy group remains in the PDP; what we are saying is that we will not be part of anybody who wants to destroy the house we built.”
“Our mom doesn’t do. I agree that we made a mistake in the past; let him do it and go. But he went to Lagos to go and bring his friend. He took the governor, he took the deputy, and we are asking, what is our own? We are the owners of the house, and we are not stupid.
“We will give him time to do what is right. We will not leave the PDP. We will be in our various polling units on election day, and that is why we are asking the governor to come now, talk to us, and tell us what is in it for us as the aboriginal PDP. We will not allow the same thing to repeat itself. Enough is enough,” Ogbeide-Ihama asserted.
He added that whatever the governor decided to do would determine the next step the group would take, reiterating, “The governor still has the time to reach out to us now before it is too late.”
Speaking earlier, the Edo South Senatorial District Chairman of the PDP, Ogieva-Okunbor, said that the leaders/stakeholders meeting was called “so that the old PDP must all say their minds, have the same mind and thoughts, and stand together in unity.”
“One thing that is sure here is that we will never help an ingrate again. Whatever efforts we are going to put in must be rewarded,” he stressed.
In his remarks at the meeting, former Senate Whip, Roland Owie noted that Governor Obaseki had not been fair to the Legacy group in spite of how the group assisted him when he ran into a political crisis in his former party, the APC.
Owie, who said that apart from the Esama of Benin Kingdom, Gabriel Osawaru Igbinedion, no other politician in Edo South was older than him, regretted that even in his Uhumwonde Local Government Area, Governor Obaseki appropriated the least of all political positions, such as councillor, to his group that followed him to the PDP from the APC.
