A chieftain of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), in Edo State, Jeffrey Edorodion, has warned that the party may remain in perpetual opposition in the state, unless it disolves the present Chief Dan Orbih-led executive before the next governorship election.
Editorial who gave the warning on Tuesday in Benin, during an interview with journalists, said the present leadership of the party in the State, is not good enough to reclaim the state from All Progressives Congress (APC).
He noted that the two-term tenure of eight years of the Dan Orbih-led executive, as provided for in the party’s constitution, has since expired.
“I want to use this medium to call on the National Chairman of the party, Uche Secondus, the Board of Trustee members and especially the South-South Governors particularly the Rivers state Governor, Nysom Wike and his Delta state counterpart, Ifeanyi OKowa, to look into the tenure of the state executive of the party because it is going to take a different dimension if not urgently addressed,p before the conduct of the next year governorship election in the state.
“If they failed to look into the plan tenure elongation by the current executive of the party in the state in a bid to address urgently before the election, the party will forever remain in opposition in the state.
“I am also calling on the party’s presidential candidate in the last election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, to intervene by prevailing on the national leadership to dissolve the present executive and conduct state-wide congresses,” he said.
While decrying the alleged plan to extend the tenure of the current state executive, he opined that allowing the executive to midwife the conduct of the next year governorship will be another disastrous to the party.
“There is nothing like tenure elongation in our party. The constitution only allows for maximum eight years and minimum four years.
“Former president Olusegun Obasanjo and former president Goodluck Jonathan tried tenure elongation but they all failed. If these persons failed why will a state chairman of the party try it and succeed?
“The present chairman has been in the office since 2009 after the death of Samson Ekhabafe. He was brought in to complete the tenure of the late Ekhabafe and after completing the tenure, he has since been elected for two tenures,” he added.
He however threatened that some of them may approach the court to seek legal redress if the party failed to dissolve the executive and conduct congresses.