Tony Osauzo, Benin
Despite appeals by a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Edo State, Hon. Charles Idahosa, to aggrieved members to stay in the party and resolve whatever grievances they have, more members have dumped the party for the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
The latest defectors were a former chairman of Ovia North East Local Government Area, Mrs. Lucy Omagbon and her husband, Harrison, alongside their supporters who are members of the Edo Kwankwasiyya Movement.
Mrs. Omagbon, who was a former State Woman Leader of the PDP before she defected to the defunct CAN, in 2012, explained that National Chairman of the APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, tried to reconcile all aggrieved members of the party but that things got bad hard as Oshiomhole tried.
She said some persons were bent on destroying the APC which was why she returned to her former party.
In her words, “I don’t have anything against the person of Adams Oshiomhole. It has happened. He has so many issues to concern himself with.
“He has tried to do his best in reconciling every one in Edo. The more he tries but the moment he leaves the worst it becomes.
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“Self respect matters a lot in politics. We got to the APC but we discovered that what we were subjected to was unimaginable.
“We were marginalised and did not know what was happening in the scheme of things. We did not know what was happening in various wards and local government.
I didn’t have answers to my people on what was happening”, the former council boss said.
On his part, Mr. Lawrence Oboh, a former APC leader in Ovia North East, said they joined the PDP because they were not being carried along in the scheme of things, just as immediate past General Manager of Edo State Waste Management Board, Prince Aiyamenkhue Akonofua, said he decided to pledge his loyalty to the PDP because of what he went through in the hands of Fulani herdsmen.
Meanwhile, the state chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, has hailed the defectors for joining the team to rescue the country.
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Orbih, who was represented by a Senatorial Leader of the party, Deacon Nosa Ehiman, assured them of equal representation in the scheme of things.
Recall that Chief Osamede Adun had led some members of the APC in Edo State to defect to the PDP last week, necessitating Hon. Idahosa to appeal for calm on Tuesday to allow internal resolution of the party’s differences.