A former member of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and now a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon Charles Idahosa, has said that the inability of Governor Godwin Obaseki to manage people and his “high level” of ingratitude cost the PDP the September 21 governorship election in Edo State.
Speaking to Sunday Vanguard in Benin, Idahosa also dispelled the allegation that the election was rigged just as he alleged that a section of the media was for Obaseki and did not see anything wrong in his style of administration.
According to him, “It is rather unfortunate about the feelings of the PDP on the election not being free and fair. As far as I am concerned, the election was very free and very fair.
“I gave an interview days before the election and I did say that Godwin Obaseki was getting frustrated and threatening here and there and I made it quite clear that it has dawned on him that this is the first time he is going for an election on his own.
“In the first election, we were with him and when he fell out with the APC and crossed to the PDP, a chunk of members of the APC went with him and when he got to the PDP, he did exactly what he was good at doing; he abandoned every person and started messing up again in the new party which is the PDP to the extent that the party was broken into two which became the Legacy PDP and the New PDP.”
On the decision to challenge the outcome of the election in court, Idahosa said “What is happening now is that they are just looking for reasons but I want to remind them that going to court is part of the electoral process.
Obaseki was taken to court twice; when he won the election in 2016, the case got to the Supreme Court. When he won again in 2020, the case got to the Supreme Court so there is nothing wrong with going to the court. I feel sorry for the person who got the collateral damage.“
He said the signs were there that the PDP was not going to win the election.
“Here was a man that deprived 14 elected lawmakers of being sworn in, we are talking of 14 constituencies out of 24 and you think their constituents and their relations and their friends will clap for you.
“Here is a man, NJC (National Judicial Commission) cleared eight judges and you sat down in your office and cancelled three. All the leaders that worked for him, he drove them away.
“PDP leaders came to Benin for a rally, he knows the tradition but instead of taking them to visit the Oba of Benin, he took them to a private residence whereas when the Vice President came with the APC candidate, he visited the Oba of Benin and this was few days to the election. “
How did he expect to win the election with all these controversies surrounding him? There was nobody that he did not deal with.”