TELL Magazine

…Boasts 10 percent of Edo population now PDP

Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki, on Friday read the riot act to members of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party, PDP in the state warning that the party would not tolerate disloyalty and disunity, even as he boasted that close to 10 percent of the state’s entire population are now members of the party.

Governor Obaseki, who spoke to journalists in Benin City, stated that with this, it remained to be seen how the party would lose future elections in the state. Recall that the state chairman of the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC, David Imuse, had vowed that the party would reclaim the state from the PDP in the 2023 general elections, as well as the 2024 governorship election.
Speaking on Monday in Benin when he inaugurated the state executive committee of the party at the state party secretariat, Imuse, a medical doctor and retired army colonel, described what is happening in the state as “an aberration” which he assured would be corrected.

Imuse said “With the successful inauguration of our state executive committee, we present a viable opposition that will be so admirable to the people that by 2023, APC will take over the elective political positions of the state, and by 2024, we will repeat the same for the governorship election because what is happening in our state and Osadebe Avenue is an aberration. And through the coming elections, we will correct the aberration”.

But in an apparent response to the APC challenge, Governor Obaseki was optimistic that with the success of the party’s electronic registration and membership revalidation exercise, the party was well-positioned to retain power as the ruling party in the state.

He noted that about 500,000 persons had been registered as members of the PDP in the ongoing exercise across the state. The 500,000 persons registered by the party, he noted, represented 10 percent of the state’s entire estimated population of five million, stressing that with this development, 10 percent of Edo population is now members of PDP. The e-registration and revalidation exercise is aimed at migrating the party’s membership database from analogue to digital, building a durable and comprehensive database of party members.

The exercise, in its pilot phase, targets at least one million persons in Edo. The party said it has now hit a record of 500,000 whose biometrics, phone numbers, and addresses were captured in the PDP digital database.

The excited governor said “I want to assure our loyal party members that we are truly proud of what is going on in terms of registration, which is inching towards half a million (500,000) members in the state. Our leaders are working diligently, going round the state to register and revalidate members. By the grace of God, before the end of this month, 10 percent of the population of the state will be PDP members. We don’t see how PDP will lose power again in Edo State, provided we continue to provide services for Edo people”.

Charging members and leaders of the party on the need to remain united so as to win future elections in the state, Obaseki advised that “There must be party discipline going forward; we can’t tolerate indiscipline and disloyalty to the party. If you can’t get what you want, it doesn’t mean the party must be disunited. We have been patient enough, and want to know who the real opposition is; we won’t tolerate disloyalty and disunity within the party”.