Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo State, has said that he and the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, are not deterred by the rejection by his Oyo State counterpart, Seyi Makinde to chair the ward congress in the state.
Speaking to journalists in his Ward 4 collation centre, Idia College, Governor Godwin Obaseki said the crisis in the party was being overhyped and that it would not affect the outcome of the governorship election.
He said, “You can see from the crowd here that it is a lot of success due to the huge turnout. We had over 600 people coming out to participate here, our people are very politically aware and we are happy with this turnout to elect delegates for our gubernatorial primary. we are also expecting this huge turnout in the main election.”
On the resignation of Makinde, Obaseki said, “It is unfortunate that Makinde withdrew, there are three governors and he is only one of three that withdrew which does not remove the credibility of the process. What makes a process credible is the quality of the participation. You can see the turnout so it is unfortunate that Governor Makinde had to take such a decision. I hope that all our efforts to continue to unify the party and pacify all stakeholders will continue. We are not deterred at all, we are going to make sure that PDP plays its role in the politics of this country.”
Speaking on the nonparticipation of members of the Legacy Coalition of the PDP, he said, “You cannot have 100 percent participation. You can see the crowd here. When we were in APC before we joined the PDP, we didn’t have these numbers so it is clear that the people we met in the party are still in the party.
“The crisis is hyped, it is not as fundamental as it is made to look. There is very little crisis, the crisis is fanned from the outside and our people are smarter than that. You will see during the main election, we are not going to allow ourselves to be sold.”
