As political parties warm up for the 2020 gubernatorial election in Edo State, a chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Confidence Macdonald, has said the party may again lose the election if it failed to conduct congress before the governorship primary election.
Recall that a chieftain of the party, Jeffrey Osamede Edorodion, had last week called on the national leadership of the party, to, as a matter of urgency, dissolve the Dan Orbih-led executive and conduct a new one.
Edorodion said the call was sequel to the expiration of the executive.
Macdonald, an executive member of the Ikpoba Okha Local Government chapter of the party, in an interview with newsmen in Benin City, said early conduct of the state congress would enable the party to resolve all the likely grievances that may arise from it, before the governorship primary election.
“A state congress for March or April 2020 will certainly keep the party in perpetual opposition as there will not be sufficient time to resolve whatever grievances may arise from the congress, let alone that which may arise from the governorship primaries.
“Waiting till March 2020 will again be counterproductive to the party’s desire and aspirations to win Edo state,” she said.
She noted that for the party to reclaim the state in the 2020 governorship election, the national, zonal and state leadership of the party must ensure that the congress is conducted before the end of 2019.
The chieftain, who expressed the optimism that the party will win the gubernatorial election, noted that the feat can only be achieved if the needful is done by the national leadership of the party by ensuring that the state congress is conducted on time.
She said failure to do that which is right and appropriate will again be tantamount to losing the state to the ruling All Progressives Congress.
“Both the national, zonal and state leadership of the party should join hands together to do the right thing. Not doing the right thing will make the party fail again in the next governorship election. The only way out, for me, is for the leaders to conduct congress early enough probably by October or November, this year”, she said.
