The worsening security situation in some parts of the country seems to be overshadowing major political events, maneuvers and calculations, geared towards the fast approaching 2015 general election. The political atmosphere in Edo State, in particular, changed recent following the defection of some chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to the opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

About 2,100 members of APC and the Labour Party (LP), led by Onasa Momoh, Edo North Senatorial chairman, had defected to the PDP in Auchi, citing the collapse of the entire structure of the LP in the senatorial district as the main reason the members joined the PDP.

Momoh explained that the LP had in the past worked in alliance with the APC and that such alliance had to end as the party never kept to any agreement reached with it.

He also said the alleged victimisation, harassment and humiliation of LP members during last election in the state was another reason the group decided to pitch tent with the PDP.

“Instead of one man, one vote, what we are experiencing is one man, no vote. APC is disorganised and running a one man show and also playing the politics of exclusiveness. We have chosen to join a party that is focused on creating jobs within a moral economy, a party that responds to the needs of the vulnerable. We are PDP members who went on sabbatical in APC. We went to APC to give opportunity to Oshiomhole to lead because of his desire to lead and promise of change, but he has failed us,” Momoh said.

There were other defections, such as the ones led by Pastor Ize-Iyamu, Solomon Idebiri, a-two time governorship aspirant; Tony Omoaghe, chairman of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), Edo chapter, a serving senator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, representing Edo South Senatorial District, Ehijie Uzamere and a host of others who decamped to PDP. They all cited lack of internal democracy in APC for their actions. 

In what appears to be a celebration of harvest of defectors, Dan Orbih, state chairman of PDP in Edo decided to tour the 18 local government councils in the state. 

Gabriel Imadojemu, a political correspondent based in Benin, said going by the huge crowd of enthusiastic party faithful in all the places Orbih visited, it appears PDP is on its way back to the Government House in 2016.

“Many people, I inclusive, thought the PDP was dead in Edo State. Objectively accessing the political permutation in the state, I think PDP is resurrecting. There is something about this new PDP under Dan Orbih. The PDP in Edo State now is a very formidable opposition; checking and putting the Adams Oshiomhole-led government on its toe! They have been able to stop the government from taking some decisions many considered were not in the best interest of the state. They are growing stronger as election date draws nearer”, he said.

Henry Tenebe, Senatorial chairman of Edo North, told BDSUNDAY that the party’s tour of the 18 local governments was overwhelmingly encouraging. He said: “The tour had a lot of impact in the state; and the people are very appreciative. Apart from creating a very serious awareness of where we are going, I want to believe that a lot of people are now aware more than before on the way out of the Edo predicament. The difference from the past and now has to do with a transformed PDP with internal democracy. PDP that is vibrant than before .We are ready to sweep the poll come next elections”, he said.

Speaking with BDSUNDAY in Benin, Orbih, the PDP state chairman, said the massive turnout of supporters (both old and new) was very overwhelming and encouraging for leadership of the party.

 “You will notice that for every local government we visited, thousands of people came out to declare support for PDP. It has also enabled us to access the strength of the party in the 18 local governments. As we move along, we also took pain to see what the government is doing and not doing in some of these local governments”, he said. 

Orbih, who challenged the state government to declare the debt profile of the state, said Oshiomhole had repeatedly denied that the state was indebted; alleging that the government has set aside N20 billion in the 2014 budget for debt servicing.

He described the sack of 836 teachers by the state government as “tissues of lies”, adding that the governor was playing politics with the figure.

“More than 3,000 teachers were sacked and there was no plan to recruit new ones. The state government had failed to fulfill the promises made to the electorate and the stowaway boy, Daniel Ohikhena. People who wanted to help the boy were stopped because of the government’s declared intention to take care of the boy and his family. Government did not fulfill the promise made to the family. People who wanted to help them stopped because they assumed they were being looked after by government”, he said.

The teenage boy had sometime in August 2013 beat airline and airport security at the Benin Airport and sneaked into the tyre compartment of a Lagos-bound Arik plane, where he flew safely to the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Lagos that fateful morning. 

The Edo PDP boss, who said he had successfully stopped the governor from selling the Edo house in Lagos and the state-own transport company (Edo line), lamented the recent announcement on television by Bob Izua, a transporter, that he (Izua) was the new sole administrator of Edo line; accusing Oshiomhole of flouting the rules and regulations guiding the state-own transport company. 

According to him, “the rules guiding the company stipulate that the Board of Directors was the only body mandated to appoint managing director for it; not the governor singlehandedly picking a sole administrator”. He said he was set to challenge the government’s decision to name Bob Izua as sole administrator in the court of law.  

 Orbih further said that the defection of former gubernatorial candidate, l Solomon Idebiri, marked the beginning of the fall of APC in the state. 

He accused governor Oshiomhole of gaining power as a Labour activist, and was now working against the interest of workers in the state. 

“While workers all over the world were celebrating Workers’ Day, their counterparts in Edo were lamenting their plight”.

Dan Orbih, who credited the current efforts at rejuvenating the Edo PDP to the party’s National Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Tony Aninih, said though silently working behind the scene, the    Uromi-born political juggernaut was the main financial pillar standing solidly behind the new PDP moves.

Reacting to the political development in the state, Odaro Ize- Omoregie, coordinator, Edo State Progressive Solidarity Forum, a social-political pressure group, said the defection of some members of the APC to PDP was no threat to the future of the party in the state.

He said it would rather make the party stronger and better positioned to win subsequent elections in the state. “Those that left the party do so out of selfish reasons. We expressed optimism that the defectors would soon return. APC is changing the face of governance in the state through infrastructural development which has been beneficial to the people of the state”, he said. 

However, speaking with BD SUNDAY, Victor Edoror, a member of Edo House of Assembly, representing Esan Central, said Governor Oshiomhole should be commended for his efforts at transforming the state and ridding it of god-fatherism.

He said: “Look at all our roads. Look at the renovation of schools in the state. The governor has done his best. Those who defected recently did so for personal and selfish reasons. They knew it was not going to be easy for them to get the party’s ticket and that is why they are defecting.”

Lucky Imhansuen, former deputy governor, and chairman, Edo South Senatorial District, of the state, told BD SUNDAY in Benin that the state of roads in the state were not what the governor claimed they are; accusing him of concentrating on very few roads (Mission Road, Ring Road, and part of Siloko Raod and Akpakpava Road). According to him, the roads were already motor-able before the governor was elected into office.

“He concentrates on one percent of the roads in the state and abandoned 99 percent. Hospitals have been reduced to mere consulting clinics; schools in the interior have been abandoned while schools that can easily be seen by visitors are renovated”, he said.

He said current government had failed to deliver dividends of democracy to the down-trodden, who according to him, have suffered from imposition of all forms of levies and multiple taxations in their desperation to generate revenue.

“They say one thing in APC and do another. As you can see their own membership are tired of what the current government is doing. People are taxed for selling pure water. PDP is willing and able to take over the mantle of leadership in the state and to turn things around for the people”, he said.

Imhansuen further said that the Edo State governor was not just losing popularity, but that the people are just beginning to know him and his anti-people policies that have rendered many in the state poor. “Nothing has changed in Oshiomhole. The only difference is that he has kept this ugly part of him secret because election was concerned. Having been elected for a second tenure, and on his final lap in office, he has shown his bad character. You can only hide bad character for a little while. The new PDP is a party ready to work for the people of the state having learnt from past experience”, he said.

Also speaking with BD SUNDAY in Benin, one of the defectors,  Senator Ehijie Uzamere, representing Edo South Senatorial District at the National Assembly, said the internal democracy in the new PDP was responsible for his return to the party he had dumped in the past.

 “There is oneness. There is no difference between the man who joined PDP yesterday and the founding members since 1999. To us, we have returned back home fully! I once said that the PDP ticket is equivalent to Zimbabwe Dollars. The PDP ticket has been re-dominated; it has regained its strength again, the core value has been enhanced. Today, the PDP ticket is equivalent to the British Pan sterling”, he said, beaming with smiles.

Solomon Edebiri, two-time gubernatorial aspirant was another heavyweight APC decampee. He told our reporter that he and his supporters left the party because of lack of internal democracy. 

“The dictatorial tendencies of the leadership of the party (in the person of the governor of the state) and the non-participatory nature of the party are responsible for our dumping the party. It is a party where people are not allowed to participate, a party where one man says it all. It is like a private limited company where one man can be managing director and that is not democracy”, he said. 

“When I discovered that there is no party system, I decided to leave. PDP is better than what we thought was in APC. You can see the desire for people to work together in PDP; you can see the commitment of everybody towards the next election. That is the kind of democratic environment everyone would want to be”, Edebiri added.

He lamented that previous governments, after the Ogbemudia administration of 1983, which lasted just three months, have failed Edo people. 

He said his decision to quit the party became necessary against the background of the way the APC was being administered in the state, saying that the imposition of candidates during congresses were unbelievable.

“The APC is built on deceit and will only destroy the hopes and aspirations of the people in the state. What took place during the last local government congress in the state negated the governor’s values on democracy.

“I saw the erosion of the principles of the agreement which we all swore to uphold few months earlier while preparing for the merger”, he said, alleging that, the party’s Interim Executives were single-handedly picked by the governor.

 According to him, in the last 20 years, Edo children and youths have been taken into prostitution overseas, where they were forced to do all sorts of dirty jobs because of joblessness in the state. 

“The population of Nigerians in Europe is more of Edo people. For over 20 years, we always have to import food into Edo State instead of exporting food. The time has come to say enough is enough. And the people of Edo can no longer continue to stay in darkness and remain in perpetual fear, slavery, terror, siege with their mouths padlocked and as if they can no longer speak. No, that is not the true meaning of democracy.

“Our democracy says you will have freedom to move, speak, associate, worship and also to benefit from the dividends of democracy”, he said. 

According to him, incumbency was not a force for him to be afraid of. “We know it exists. We are planning many actions as to how we can stop the use of government facilities to campaign by the incumbent governor. And that we are sure, we will be able to achieve, but it is not a threat, we are not afraid of that”, he said.

Edebiri contested for Edo State governorship on the platform of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP) in 2007 and re-contested in 2012 on the platform of All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) before the party joined forces with ACN and CPC to form APC. 

There was also insinuations within the ruling APC that Tom ikimi, a party chieftain, was under pressure from the decamped former party’s stalwarts to join them in PDP. A source close to the former minister of Foreign Affairs who confided in our correspondent said the Igueben political gladiator had had to battle with Bola Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos and national leader of APC, over the control of the party’s structure in the state.  

When contacted on the telephone to speak on the political development in the state, Ikimi told BD SUNDAY that he was not in the country at the time of the call. 

He said: “I am not in town. I am somewhere in the West Coast”.

Both Anslem Ojezua, APC chairman in the state, and the publicity secretary, Godwin Erhahon appeared unwilling to speak; as neither of them returned several calls and text messages sent to their cell phones, seeking the party’s official position.

Efforts also made at reaching Kazim Afegbua, the Special Adviser, Media and Public Affairs to Governor Adams Oshiomhole, did not yield any result. 

Peter Okhiria, the press secretary to the governor, who had earlier promised to assist in reaching Afegbua was said not to be in the office when BD SUNDAY visited the Government House. 

Lai Mohammed, interim national publicity secretary of the APC, had also yet to return calls and text message sent to his cell phone, seeking the party’s position and action on the Edo situation.

NATHANIEL AKHIGBE