Following the defection of Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo from the ruling APC to the PDP, 106 members of the Action Democratic Party (ADP) have also defected to PDP. The ADP defectors are from Egor, Ovia South West and Ovia North East Local Government Areas of Edo.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the defections came as Edo State gets set for a governorship election, described by analysts as a two-horse race between the PDP and APC. The governorship election is slated for Sept. 19. ALSO READ: Wike head Edo gubernatorial election council Mr Oshodin Izedomwen, the Organising Secretary of the ADP in Edo, who led the defectors, said on Tuesday in Benin that the defection was part of their belief in the capacity of the PDP.
He recalled that he was a founding member of the PDP and that he left the party because of some persons, whom he described as “strange bedfellows” who came to join the PDP. Izedomwen said that the other defectors and himself had now returned to the PDP because the “strange bedfellows had since left the party. “In politics, interest matters because it is always the driving force,” he stated. Receiving the defectors, the Edo State Chairman of the PDP, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, expressed delight with the defectors. He described the action of the new party members and their leader as a homecoming.
Aziegbemi assured the defectors that they would be integrated into the PDP to contribute to the success of the party in the state. On June 19, Obaseki defected from the APC to PDP, having been disqualified by the APC to contest for re-election on the platform of the party.
