Ben peters, Abuja
Ahead of the March 11, state Assembly election, the Edo State leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has commenced subtle campaigns with a view to form a working alliance with a segment of the Labour Party.
Government House sources disclosed that Gov Obaseki is downcast about the heavy wounds inflicted on the ruling PDP and has vowed to do everything possible to reverse the trend.
The source further said that the governor has held a series of meetings with political associates and stakeholders to devise ways to arrest the impending tsunami about to hit the state the second time after the results of the national assembly and presidential elections were announced
Consequently, the ruling PDP, led by the governor, have reached out to some Labour Party chieftains with the hope of prevailing on them to support the PDP candidates in the state assembly election.
The governor in return, it was gathered promises that LP members would be appointed as local government chairmen during the council election.
The secret meeting was said to have been held in the Dennis Osadebe Government House in Benin and was attended by some of the trusted political aides of the governor as well as a few number of the LP chieftains.
The major agenda of the meeting was to fashion out a workable alliance between the PDP and the LP for the success of the PDP candidates in the state assembly election and to also avoid a repeat of the abysmal failure the PDP recorded during the presidential and national assembly elections.
But in a swift reaction to the secret meeting and its purported outcome, the Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party in Edo State, Comrade Sam Uroupa, in a statement, said those who attended the meeting on behalf of the LP were not the authentic LP leaders in the state.
He added that “he has it on good authority that those the governor invited were the break-away factions and, therefore, can not lay any claim to being LP leaders.
He said, “For the avoidance of doubt, the LP and its candidates do not have any connection or alliance with anybody or group, including Gov Obaseki-led faction of the PDP
“We strongly appeal to all Edo people to troop out en mass on March 11 and vote for the LP candidates in the state assembly election as this is the only way to bring about a vibrant and people-oriented legislature”.
The state assembly election on March 11 is the last straw for Gov Obaseki to redeem what remains of his political reputation and career. It is a make or mar and if the outcome goes the same way as that of February 25, it automatically spells doom for the governor and his disciples.
Unless Gov Obaseki can conjure some magic and reverse the drift, otherwise it would certainly go down in history as the first time, since its formation, the PDP in Edo State would lose the presidential, national and the state assembly elections.