Ahead of the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State, MICHAEL EGBEJULE reports that how the three leading parties in the state – Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) – manage the crisis that erupted after the contest for their respective tickets would shape the eventual outcome of the poll.

The outcome of the primary elections for the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State has no doubt placed some hurdles before the three major political parties in the state – the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), All Progressives Congress (APC) and Labour Party (LP) – which they must cross before they can dream of victory at the main poll.

The primaries conducted by the three parties produced parallel candidates, a development each of the parties must address quickly or else go into the election as a divided house.

For the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the election promises to be a replay of the internal battle that dogged its 2023 presidential contest if they fail to put their house in order.

Governor Godwin Obaseki believes that Mr. Asue Ighodalo is the best candidate to carry on with the torch of leadership after his tenure ends early next year and gave him his backing at the party primary. But Obaseki’s deputy for almost eight years now, Phillip Shaibu, has taken up the Emilokan chant, insisting that it is his turn to sit on the governorship seat of Edo State. Based on the wrangling, there are fears that the deputy governor, who emerged from a parallel primary as the PDP governorship candidate, may end up playing the Nyesom Wike game that helped to deny former Vice President Atiku Abubakar victory in the 2023 presidential poll.

Ighodalo emerged from what was seen as the authentic PDP primary with a convincing vote tally of 577 to beat seven other contenders at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Benin City penultimate Friday. But Shaibu, who was said to have crowned himself at his Benin GRA official residence, has left nobody in doubt that he has all it takes to make PDP take his candidacy seriously.

For now, many party faithful have expressed anxiety over PDP’s chances in the election, especially given that Ighodalo, who is not a ‘home boy’, will have his popularity strongly tested during the governorship contest.

Already, Ighodalo has begun to cry out that he is not Obaseki’s stooge, arguing that he wants to deploy his wealth of experience to push the frontiers of the development of Edo State from where Obaseki will stop.

On his part, Obaseki maintains that his decision to support a candidate from Edo Central Senatorial District is to fulfill the promises and assurances he gave to the zone last four years when he was gunning for a second term. But, his deputy, Shaibu, contends that as a home boy, he has been well groomed to take over from Obaseki not minding the zoning principle. He maintains that he wouldn’t have entered the race if a candidate other than another Diaspora technocrat that will begin to learn the art of governance on the job was recommended.

It is not known how the courts will determine Shaibu’s claims that the parallel primary that produced him as the candidate was conducted with delegates that were properly elected for that purpose.

However, party stakeholders are anxious about their candidate’s political voyage against the backdrop of speculations that Shaibu is being supported by a powerful politician in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) who has an axe to grind with Obaseki. They are also worried that the flag bearer, Ighodalo, had not been battle tested politically. Those who see him as a political neophyte insist that he has never been involved in Edo politics and as such may not know where the tough skulls are buried.

An interesting twist to the crisis over the governorship ticket of the party is the commencement of impeachment proceedings against the deputy governor by the state House of Assembly. Many observers feel that the governor is behind the move. However, Shaibu has declared that he is not afraid of impeachment, maintaining that nothing will stop him from contesting the governorship election on September 21.

Shaibu stated: “The level of intimidation and harassment meted out to me and the people who believe in me was beyond comprehension, yet it does not actually change our resolve in what we believe in.

“People were sacked, some civil servants were suspended, others transferred from their positions and taken away from their family comfort to different places, all because they were associating with me.

“Well, I dare say that anybody still intimidating or harassing anybody means that he is not ready to win an election.”

He added that if the party truly desires to win the election on September 21, they should field a popular and competent candidate rather than impose a candidate on the people.

While opinions are divided that Obaseki’s support for Ighodalo may result in political suicide for the party, there seems to be a consensus that the outgoing governor’s choice of Ighodalo is coming at a time that the Edo Central Senatorial District are ready to give him overwhelming support.

Some PDP stakeholders who are in support of Obaseki on the zoning issue wonder what Shaibu wants after serving as member of Edo State House of Assembly, member of the House of Representatives and deputy governor for eight years.

A media practitioner, Lucky Isibor, told The Guardian that the two Esan governorship candidates from the APC and the PDP will massively enjoy the support of Esan people because the zone has never experienced the kind of state-wide support and endorsement from Edo people across the three senatorial districts.

For the APC, the emergence of Senator Monday Okpebholo during a rerun ordered by the party has left the party in disarray as Dennis Idahosa, who was announced the winner of the first election by the Governor Hope Uzodimma-led Edo Governorship Primary Election Committee is still laying claim to the ticket. However, many stakeholders appear pleased that Okpebholo, who hails from Edo Central, which is supposed to produce Obaseki’s successor going by the zoning arrangement, was declared as the APC candidate after the rerun.

Isibor said: “Edo people, including members of the political class deplored the outcome of the first APC primary election, noting that it is a recipe for disunity in the state.

“They all vowed to pay APC back during the governorship election should it jettison zoning by voting any of the political parties that will present its candidate from Edo Central Senatorial District. You needed to go to the streets of Benin City and see the anger of the people, even from APC members and their supporters.

“The fact that the old political war horses in the APC from Edo South, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu and Lucky Imasuen, a former deputy governor of the state stepped down their gubernatorial ambitions to pave way for the emergence of a governorship candidate from Edo Central Senatorial District underscores the fact that Edo people have truly decided to move the governorship slot to Edo Central.”

On its part, the LP is being unsettled by its age-old leadership crisis at the national level. The crisis is threatening to throw spanner in the works of the party in the governorship election. While the Chief Lamidi Apapa-led faction announced Anderson Uwadiae Asemota as its candidate and immediately followed up the announcement with a letter to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in which it submitted Asemota’s name as the candidate of the party, the Julius Abure-led faction produced Olumide Akpata as the candidate of the party. Although the Abure-led faction seems to be having an upper hand at the moment with the recent affirmation of Abure as the authentic National Chairman of the party, the party will have to pacify other aspirants like Kenneth Imasuagbon that contested and lost the ticket to Akpata, as there are fears that some of the aspirants may defect from the party.

Sources claimed that Imasuagbon seems to be at a crossroad as the PDP, which he left to join LP, produced a candidate from Edo Central Senatorial District. Recall that in 2020, Imasuagbon was prevailed upon by stakeholders and traditional rulers in Edo Central to step down from the governorship race for Obaseki, who had defected from APC.

Some LP faithful fear that Imasuagbon, popularly known as ‘Riceman’, may find his way back to PDP rather than stay back in LP to canvass for votes for Akpata, who hails from Edo South Senatorial District.

The outcomes of the various primaries have raised a lot of emotions in the state both within the parties and outside. However, how the parties manage the crisis that has erupted towards attaining victory at the poll would be clearer in the days to come.