Crisis Rocks Edo PDP as Sheriff Faction Conducts Primary

By Segun James

All may not have ended with the crisis that is now rocking the Edo state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) as the Alhaji Modu Ali Sheriff faction of the party may conduct its own primary for the September 10th election next Monday.

The faction, ThisDay gathered, is now wooing Dr. Solomon Iyobosa Edebiri and Hon. Mathew Iduiyikemwen, the two other candidates in last Monday’s party primary to contest its own primary.

This followed the emergence of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the governorship candidate for the September 10th 2016 governorship election.

The Sheriff group, which is claiming leadership of the party, is said to have made it clear that Ize-Iyamu may end up as a liability for the party if retained as candidate because of his involvement in the $155 million Mrs. Deziani Alison-Madueke campaign money scandal as the candidate is undergoing investigation.

Pastor Ize-Iyamu was invited by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) as part of investigation into how the money was shared by some PDP leaders.

The group is claiming that the party may have unwittingly played into the hands of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) which may use the EFCC to investigate the alleged role of the PDP candidate in the deal or even detain him as the election approaches, forcing the party to have two battles to contend with – the governorship election and the EFCC.

Meanwhile, the APC led by its governorship candidate, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, in a surprise move on Tuesday, approached Dr. Solomon Edebiri to work together with him.

Obaseki was said to have gone to Edebiri’s home on Tuesday evening in company of Major Gen. Charles Arhiavbere, Senator Domingo Obende and other top members of APC, Edo State, for the meeting.

Although details of the meeting were not known, the APC’s move may be one of the strategies of the party to bring in people with substantial followings in the PDP to the APC.

Edebiri is believed to have substantial following and a force to be reckoned with in the political equation of the state.

Meanwhile, Ali Modu Sheriff, disputed National Chairman of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has declared Monday’s governorship primary of the party in Edo State as illegal, dismissing it as the work of an illegal care-taker committee.

A statement co-signed by Sheriff and Wale Oladipo, former National Secretary, PDP, disclosed that a letter had been written to the chairman of Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), urging him not to “give legitimacy to what happened in Edo”.