28th February, 2012
Confusion has continued to trail the recent adoption of Solomon Edebiri as the governorship candidate of a coalition of political parties for the July 2012 poll in Edo State.
Edebiri, originally of the Peoples Progressive Party (PPP), was recently adopted by a coalition of opposition political parties comprising All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), Labour Party (LP) and others to fly their flag in the governorship election coming up on 14 July 2012 in Edo State.
Reacting to the development, chairman of a faction of the LP, Sam Omede, denied that the party ever adopted Edebiri or any other politician as its flagbearer in the forthcoming governorship polls.
Omede queried the rationale behind what he called ‘the Greek Gift’ that he stressed was handed over to Edebiri.
“The questions to ask are: ‘ What informed the reason for the adoption of Edebiri as the coalition’s governorship candidate? Who were the party officials who sat down and negotiated the deal?’”
Omede described the adoption of Edebiri as ill-timed, saying that the involvement of the LP was also ill-informed.
He called the adoption a big fraud while clarifying that the LP in the state was never a part of such dubious ploy.
“Presently, we do not have any politician vying for the governorship position in Edo State. When we are ready to unveil our governorship candidate everybody in the state would be aware. We will call a World Press Conference to make the announcement,” he stated.
Talking to P.M.NEWS on phone about the issue, Isaiah Osifo, who is a stalwart of the rival faction of LP, said Omede’s comments should be discountenanced as he is not a genuine member of the party.
He revealed that the National Executive Council of the party has endorsed the state wing’s adoption of Edebiri as governorship candidate.
—Isaac Olamilekan/Benin