The Edo State chairman of the People Democratic Party (PDP), Dr. Anthony Aziegbemi, has denied the rumoured wrangling between Governor Godwin Obaseki and the leadership of the party in the state, saying that such rumours were from the fifth columnists who want to cause apprehensions and do not wish the party well.
The Edo PDP Chairman who spoke with journalists in Benin weekend in an interview said, “not at all, in fact I can say this anywhere, it is a very mutually respected relationship between the party and the government.”
According to him, there is cordiality between us because the governor is who he is, he believes we can play politics fairly, justly and so those potential rumuors that people are imagining is not there. And I think I can assure everybody that we expect it not to be there because the governor is not that kind of person.
“He will basically tell you that this is what I want to do but make sure that it is in line with the party’s Constitution and once it is in line with the party’s Constitution, I am all for it.”
“So normally I do not comment on members’ comments, I respect everyone’s opinion, do I agree or disagree, that is my personal opinion which I might not wish to air.”
“The PDP is a very big party. Even in a family of two, three, four or five as it may be, you have issues. Am I saying we might not have issues, worries and fears?”
“Of course they will be there and my job is to manage those fears, my job is to make sure and don’t forget some of these apprehensions stems from the fact that people have fear.”
“That fear can be genuine, it can also be a wrong perception, so my job is to explain to everyone among the critical segment of the party to say this fear you are having is not real and this is why it is not real and once I take out time to explain to the different stakeholders and critical segment of the party I think they are good.”
“Of course there will be fears, of course there will be apprehension, of course there will be people feeling that they are being shortchanged, my job is to explain that, no, everybody will be carried along.”
“The governor is that kind of person, he will carry everybody along, it might not be everybody at the same time and that is where we need to do the explanation. It may not be for you now, don’t worry next time it will be you surely.”
On the victory of the governor at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Aiziegbemi said, “we are grateful to God, we are grateful to the judiciary, we give all the glory to God but we think we shouldn’t have gone through this route at all, we always believed that the governor had his papers intact, we were extremely convinced that he had those papers that was why he was granted all those wavers that we granted him in the first instance both from the national and the state chapters of the party.”
“So, we think that we are at the right track, we pray all these distractions should end now and we plead all those that are taking matters, though it is within their rights to go to appeal court but we don’t need all those now.”

“Our desire is to serve Edo people, Edo people have made their choice on the 19th of September 2020, and they have chosen Governor Godwin Obaseki, for the sake of Edo people I expect that everybody should sheath their swords and come and help and support the governor so that the people that they wish to serve in the first instance when they were contesting against the governor the people will have the dividends of democracy.”