16th May, 2024
By Jethro Ibileke
The Director-General of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Campaign Council for the September 21st governorship election in Edo State, Matthew Iduoriyemkewen, has described those abandoning the party ahead of the poll are disgruntled.
He stayed this Thursday in Benin when he and the campaign council visited the leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), Edo State Council.
Iduoriyemkewen who said that the PDP is interested in persons of value, described those who have remained solidly with the party as assets
He added that many people are still coming to join the party as it prepares for the governorship election.
According to him, “Most of the people moving out of the PDP have become disgruntled, and they feel they must have it all. I don’t know who gave them that kind of entitlement that PDP is theirs, and it must be theirs, and that when they need anything in PDP, and they don’t get it, nobody else can get it, and that the roof must be brought down.
“I can tell you that people we have in the PDP are those that are assets to the party. Those that are assets to the party, we would not allow them to leave. More so, those that we are bringing into the party are those that will add value to the party. You will start seeing them very soon.”
The Edo PDP campaign DG said his party’s candidates, Asue Ighodalo and Osarodion Ogie (governorship and deputy governorship respectively), are the right persons Edo needs to move to an enviable heights.
Speaking on the campaign proper, Iduoriyemkewen said the party’s campaign would be issue-based, adding that how to move Edo forward is his party concern and not frivolties.
He said: “Our campaign would be issue-based. The campaign would be where we met Edo people and where we intend to take them to. Our campaign is going to be a realistic one, the steps we intend to take to solve the numerous challenges facing us.
“What we are going to be telling Edo people is the process of taking them from where we met them to where we are taking them to.”
He, however, solicited for partnership and cooperation of media practitioners.
The chairman of NUJ, Edo State council, Comrade Festus Alenkhe, in his response, described the NUJ secretariat as a freedom ground where anyone is free to express his or her mind on issue.
Alenkhe, however, assured the visitors of unbiased and apolitical reportage of political issues in the state, even as he noted that the union as a professional body frowned at fake news and unverified information.