By DADA AYOKHAI
The troubles in the Peoples Democratic Party in Etsako West council area are far from being over.
A new dimension to the trouble is beginning to manifest and if not nipped in the bud on time may develop into a full blown crisis. The source of the latest trouble can be traced to the displeasure which greeted the nomination of a member of the opposition party as a commissioner- designate.
The nomination of DADA Abubakar from Auchi has somehow polarized the PDP in Etsako West. Rather than uniting, the nomination has brought out all the various cleavage pulling at the heart and soul of the party
Some of the party members especially in Auchi have alluded to the storm the party has weathered in recent times and concluded it is in the best interest of the party to “bolster” the morale of the bonafide members rather than “pander” to base sentiments.
Recently, the Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, forwarded the names of the second batch of his list of commissioner designates to the state assembly for screening and confirmation
At the center of the trouble was the inclusion of the name of Hon. Dada Abubakar who is widely perceived to be a member of the opposition
According to the party enthusiastics ,it is either the state governor was not properly briefed or he deliberately ignored wise counsel and chose to do his own bidding, members of the PDP in Etsako West are not happy with the end-result
In different ways, the party chapter in Auchi where the nominee hails from have expressed their misgivings by way of dispatching a strongly worded petition to Gov Obaseki to denounce the nominating of someone whom they perceive as a “stranger and non-party member”, while ignoring the bonafide party members
Borderline News24 learned from credible party sources that the nomination of Hon. Abubakar as a commissioner-designate was largely perceived as a “slight” as well as “profoundly vexatious” by the leaders of the party in the local government.
Their grouse, the Borderline News24 learned, was further compounded by the fact that the antecedents of the commissioner-designate reeks of betrayal and anti-party activities.
Abubakar, a former PDP member in Auchi, Etsako West is largely seen as an “outsider, one that abandoned the PDP in the time of need to seek greener pastures elsewhere and now wants to return through the back door to lord it over those who stood with the party in thick and thin.
He is also said to have enjoyed all the privileges in the party and still stabbed the party on the back
For example, on two different occasions, he contested for the state House of Assembly election on the platform of the party and lost.
Before the last general election, he defected to the New Nigeria People’s Party, NNPP, where he contested for the state assembly election and also lost election
