By DADA AYOKHAI
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Owan East LGA of the Edo North district failed to produce a chairmanship candidate during the recently held party primaries for the forthcoming September 3 local government elections .
While the party primaries produced conclusive results across the state, that of the Owan East is pending and it may require the intervention of the party hierarchy at the state level to resolve the crisis.
The reason for the Owan East political quagmire may not be far-fetched. Party sources disclosed that the deadlock came about because of the alleged overarching influence of Edo state deputy governor’ s wife .
The sources further insisted that the party leaders in the local government are at their wit’s end on how to curtail her excesses, adding the fiery and influence-wielding lady does not tolerate opposition and is hell-bent on imposing her stooges irrespective of the prevailing power rotation policy.
The underbelly of the political saga playing out in the Owan East came to the fore at the last chairmanship primaries, leading to its cancellation .
The face-off between the party leaders and the deputy governor wife, comrade Mariam Shaibu reached its peak in the primaries to produce the chairmanship candidate.
While the party leaders stuck to the prevailing zoning arrangement, the deputy governor wife was said to have insisted on the party flag being given to her chosen candidate, Kadiri Ukodo. also happens to be one of her former aides,
This insistence did not go down well with the party leaders. They felt she was becoming too overbearing and that her political judgments lacked logic, especially against the backdrop of how the party lost the Owan East state assembly election as a result of her insistence on the imposition of Ukodo from ihievbe which flouted the prevailing zoning arrangement at the time.
The party leaders were said to have resisted attempts to foist the same person from the Ihievbe as the chairmanship candidate.
Doing so, they argued, would be inimical and injurious to the spirit of the zoning arrangement in place as well as an injustice to the other communities in the local government area.
No one expected the candidate in question, okodo to have procured the nomination form but he l went ahead to do so. Besides his disposition which the party members view as unfriendly, his habit of dropping the name of the deputy governor wife to curry political favours is legendary.
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Bitter about his loss of the state assembly election, he was said to have told party leaders that the wife of the number two citizen wants him to fly the party’s chairmanship flag against all odds.
In the calculation of the party leaders, an Ihievbe indigene, Andrew Osigwe, had recently completed his tenure as the LGA chairman. Therefore, they queried why another person from the Ihievbe should succeed him if equity and fairness were applied
Thus, in defiance of the zoning arrangement and the stance of the party leaders, the “chosen candidate” bought the nomination form and even went ahead to organize a kangaroo primary where he emerged as the winner.
And, to further compound issues, the “chosen one” not minding that the Owan East LGA primary stands canceled has taken refuge in the official residence of his political mentors in Benin, hoping the influence-wielding madam and the husband who is also the party’s leader in the Edo North district, will pull the necessary strings to ensure his name is inserted when the list of candidates is to be submitted to the EDOSIEC before the expiration of deadline.
It remains to be seen how the party hierarchy intends to navigate itself out of the crisis.
