Obaseki Has The Yam, Knife To Solve Edo PDP Crisis If He Wants – Imagwe – State PDP Exco Member

Jude Imagwe, a former aide to President Goodluck Jonathan and now an ex-officio member of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP Edo State Executive Committee, in this interview speaks on the recent crisis that has engulfed the state chapter of the party. He spoke in an in interview on Channels Television and monitored by GreenWhiteGreen GWG

Excerpts:

What exactly is the issue in Edo State PDP?

The truth is that I don’t think we have a problem of harmonisation in Edo State, we only have a problem of honesty, transparency and sincerity.

It is painful and a pitiable situation that we have found ourselves today and some of the statements that were credited to the governor some days ago, I don’t think that they are statesmanlike. They are not statements that should come from a leader, a father and an executive governor.

Three things are key here. Looking at the constitution of the party, there are clear definitions. In chapter 2, Part 1 – membership. You don’t come into a party to say that you want to become an executive, you come into a party, first to become a member.

Now, I have not any  where  any of the 18 local government areas of the state where the ward chairmen or the local government chairmen have denied anyone membership the privilege of registering into the party. Not the ward chairman, not the local government chairman or the state chairman. On that note they are not right, they are not sincere to the people to say that the PDP is not granting them inclusiveness.

The second part is that the governor is always hammering that I am the leader of the party, nobody is saying that you are not a leader, but we have several other leaders in the party. Yes as the governor of the state, you have a privilege. Now taking away the executive power of a governor from him and bringing him into the party as a member, he is a leader, but he is one of the leaders of the party. And for the purpose of clarity, the governor got this thing about inclusiveness and harmonisation wrong from the inception. After defection what was expected from a governor that honestly wanted to carry out transparency, sincerity and inclusiveness was a family meeting. But this was not done.

The window period between when the governor began to constitute his cabinet to the time he actually constituted his cabinet created a very strong room for doubt, mistrust and deception.

The third aspect of it is that the governor has allowed himself to inherit a crisis that ab initio he was not part of.

When the governor came to PDP, he came with his complete structure. I mean, himself, his deputy, his chief of staff and the secretary to the Government and the Speaker. Now the governor should not be using that assertion that he made PDP to win the election. That is not true. The PDP has always won the election in two senatorial districts even with the absence of a governor we always won those two.

The governor himself before coming to the PDP was being represented in the National Assembly by a PDP senator. So, we were not lacking in manpower, we were not lacking in popularity.

Was there an agreement on a sharing formula before the governor came to the party?

To the best of my knowledge I was not part of any agreement. I do not know if there was an agreement between the governor, the then immediate past chairman who today is the chairman of the South-South zone and the former chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party.

But I know that there was crisis owing to the entrance of the governor into the party. By the grace of God I was one of those who also signed a document accepting the governor’s presence and membership into the Peoples Democratic Party. We signed that document in good faith, we signed that document believing that we were not going to have the crisis that we are now having.

Was there any expectation from those that the Governor met in the PDP that he is not meeting now?

To be very honest and in the fear of God, we were not expecting anything other than inclusiveness any acceptance from the governor. Every old member of the PDP has accepted and we will continue to welcome the governor with open arms, but they have refused to accept us as brothers and partners.

The Deputy Governor has claimed that they came in with the APC chairman and several others but that they have not been given slots in the PDP?

We are talking about people who were constitutionally elected. On the 14^th of March 2020 we were democratically elected. So, coming to say that you just want to dissolve a democratically elected exco without a political settlement or a negotiated exit cannot stand because you cannot tell the governor to dissolve his partnership with his deputy. We accepted them as one and the deputy governor himself should be honest with issues on ground. Are they open?

Is there any template that you laid on the ground that is not being followed?

I don’t think we would have gotten to the stage we are in now if people had been honest and sincere. The governor has the knife and the yam. The governor also has the instrumentality of government to buy gas or choose to buy kerosene or petrol. All that is needed is that if the governor could afford to appoint 57 persons as Senior Special Assistant…our Local Government Councils have been dissolved for over a year, so what is wrong with compensating people?

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