TELL Magazine

Admits Obaseki into Party Friday.

All is now set to admit the embattled governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki into Nigeria’s major opposition political party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP. The governor was being expected at the Edo State secretariat of the party in Benin on Thursday where many party leaders had gathered for the event before news went round that it would now take place on Friday, a day the PDP was initially expected to hold its primary election.

South South National Vice Chairman of the PDP, Emmanuel Ogidi who confirmed this in Benin City, also confirmed that the party’s governorship primary election would now take place on Tuesday, June 23.

Officials of the PDP had been engaged in complex and intense negotiations with Obaseki and top officials of his government ahead of his defection in the last few days.

Details and terms of the negotiations were still sketchy at the time of filing this report but it was gathered that one of the knotty issues was the fate of the deputy governor, Philip Shaibu whom Obaseki insisted on retaining but was being resisted by leadership of the PDP.