- Obaseki gets PDP membership card
- Party primary shifted from Friday to Monday to accommodate him
- Meets with all Edo PDP governorship aspirants as two step down
The second highest organ of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the National Working Committee, met on Thursday in Abuja to clear the final hurdles and formalise agreements towards the formal admission of Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, into the party.
One of the issues formalized was the issuance of waiver for Governor Obaseki to enable him contest for the party primaries.
Obaseki had met most of Wednesday night with chairman of PDP, Prince Uche Secondus, Governor Nyesom WIke and the chairman of the PDP Governors’ Forum, Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State and some other bigwigs, on the final agreements, on all areas, before his entry.
With the agreement, Governor Obaseki was issued a PDP membership card in his ward in Oredo Local Government Area of the State.
Global Upfront Newspapers (GUN) gathered that the meeting also deliberated on all the fears of the Edo State PDP executives and the misgivings of the aspirants and how they would be carried along in the quest for the Governor to have an easy ride in the primaries and the general elections.
Towards this, sources said, two PDP governorship aspirants have stepped down step down for him.
It was also in order to accommodate the Governor’s candidature, the PDP Governorship primaries was moved from June 19-20, 2020 to 22-23 June 2020.
PDP National Publicity Secretary, Kola Ologbodiyan, confirmed the postponement on Thursday, saying in in a statement that “The NWC of @OfficialPDPNig has postponed the Edo state governorship primary election earlier scheduled for Friday, June 19 and Saturday, June 20, 2020 to a new date of Tuesday, June 23, 2020. This decision is predicated on exigencies of party activities.
“All governorship aspirants, critical stakeholders, party faithful and our teeming supporters, particularly in Edo state, are to take note accordingly. Our party wishes to remind our members that all activities shall be in accordance with the Nigeria Center for Disease Control (NCDC)’s guidelines on COVID -19, as it concerns social/physical distancing at public gatherings.”
The screening committee of the All Progressives Congress (APC) had disqualified Obaseki from participating in the governorship primary of the party owing to alleged discrepancies in the Edo Governor’s educational credentials.
Sources also told GUN that Sources within the PDP in Edo State confirmed that Obaseki has registered to officially join the party.
It was further gathered that the governor will be meeting with PDP governorship aspirants and leaders of the party on Thursday to resolve all grey areas before announcing his defection.
One of the sources noted that Obaseki and his supporters, including assembly members and local government chairmen, would declare for PDP on Friday or Saturday in Benin where he would be received by PDP Governors.