Edo PDP crisis: Ortom to head reconciliation committee

The national executive committee (NEC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has constituted a three-member reconciliation committee to resolve the crisis in the Edo state chapter of the party.

The decision to set up the committee was taken at the 95th NEC meeting, which took place on Wednesday in Abuja.

Debo Ologunagba, PDP spokesperson, in a statement, said the committee will be chaired by Samuel Ortom, while Ifeanyi Okowa and Bala Mohammed, governors of Delta and Bauchi, respectively, will be members.

The Edo chapter of PDP has been embroiled in crisis, especially with speculations over plans by Godwin Obaseki, governor of the state, and his deputy, Philip Shaibu, to leave the party.

Obaseki and Shaibu defected to the PDP in the build-up to the 2020 Edo governorship election, after which they clinched the party’s ticket and won the election.

On March 7, Shaibu asked the PDP national leadership to “integrate” supporters of Obaseki, who had joined the PDP from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The deputy governor had added that Obaseki’s supporters may leave the party if they continued to feel like outsiders.

Three days later, Iyorchia Ayu, PDP national chairman, at an event in Edo, said Obaseki would not dump the party.

Some days later, Shaibu’s comment snowballed into an exchange of words between Obaseki and Nyesom Wike, governor of Rivers.

Wike described the Edo deputy governor as an “ingrate” for threatening the party, but in response, Obaseki had criticised his Rivers counterpart, saying the PDP is not his personal property.

Speaking further on the development, the Rivers governor had tackled Obaseki, accusing the latter of “serial betrayal”.