Party loses members including chairman’s sibling and former official

Less than three months and three weeks remain before the September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship election. Clement Aziegbemi, the younger brother of Dr. Anthony Aziegbemi, the PDP’s state chairman, has left the party.

According to Obasanjonews.com, Abass Momoh Jega, a former politician who served as the State House of Assembly’s Etsako East constituency representative, also left the party.

Jega led the party in Etsako East Local Government Area and served as the previous commissioner for Works and Utilities, Finance, Budget, and Economic Development during the brief tenure of Governor Oserhiemen Osunbor.

Alongside the two, Monday Ihama, the former chairman of the Ovia South West Local Government Area Council and state secretary of the PDP, Kemi Aimufua, the former chairperson of Ovia South West, the former candidate for the Edo State House of Assembly, the assistant woman leader of the local government, and A. Adeche, the former youth leader of Akoko-Edo Local Government Area, also left the party.

The resigning members attributed their decision to the discord and split inside the party in their individual letters of resignation to the state chairman, senatorial leaders, chairmen of local governments, and chairmen of their respective wards.

Read Also: Edo Governorship Election: PDP Revises National Campaign Council List

In a letter dated May 30, 2024, Aziegbemi stated that he was forced to leave the Party due to a crisis, which had been made worse by Ighodalo’s inclination to associate with people who weren’t involved in his campaign.

Aziegbemi, who also functioned as a spokesman for PDP candidate Asue Ighodalo, expressed the opinion that the Partly leadership’s aggressive approach to winning is mostly to blame for the PDP’s large member desertion.

He asserted that the party loyalists’ employees in the state were passed over for employment by the leadership because they were not inclusive enough.

“The party leadership and those in government have caused a great deal of suffering to the old PDP members, to which I belong. Despite their obvious need for care, neither the party’s nominee nor the governor have attempted to address these problems.

“It will be very difficult for the party to win any local government seats in Edo State’s September 21, 2024, governorship election if this ugly situation continues.

“Another unsettling matter is the apparent appropriation of the PDP governorship nominee by a group of political swindlers, in contrast to those of us who tirelessly advocated for him to be selected as the Party’s nominee.

“This serves as a formal resignation as a Senior Special Assistant to the Governor of Edo State, His Excellency Godwin Obaseki. Please consider this as my resignation from every party responsibility, including my role as one of the spokespersons for the gubernatorial candidate,” he stated.

Abass Momoh Jega blamed his resignation on the party, saying it was very difficult for him to stay a part of such a group of people because of the claimed dishonesty and complete disdain that were the current norm.

“After consulting with my family, friends, followers, and constituents, I have come to the irreversible decision that all of my followers and I must resign from the Peoples Democratic Party immediately,” he said in his letter.

“I now give up my membership in the party, effective immediately. Since the party’s new leadership took over in 2020, it has completely changed from being a well-organized, disciplined organisation to one that has no regard for party leaders or the rules of conduct that have been in place since 1999, when I started to play a significant role and provide funding for the organisation in my local government area.

“I also miss leading Mr. Governor on his campaign tour to Ward 6, Imiekuri, Okpella in the 2020 governorship campaign, and the assurance he gave the people that he would not be allowed to serve as their governor going forward if he failed to build their impenetrable road within two years of taking office.

“I recall him saying, ‘Do not call me your governor again if, within two years of my taking office, I do not build this your road,’” he continued.

According to Obasanjonews.com, a number of PDP leaders and members have left the party and joined the All Progressives Congress, or APC.

Felix Akhabue, the former commissioner and chairman of the Esan West local government, and Madam Aisosa Amadasun, the former state chairperson of the APC and PDP who ran as a PDP candidate in the Oredo West seat in the 2023 election, are among those who resigned and joined the APC. Frank Okiye, a former executive chairman of eighteen local government areas and speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, was also there.