Edo State governorship aspirant, Dr Asue Ighodalo has been officially cleared by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to contest in the governorship election primaries holding in the state soon.
The aspirant obtained his clearance on Tuesday amid agitation and gang-up by some party leaders and fellow aspirants who were bent on pushing him out of the contest.
Edo governorship election has been scheduled to hold on 21 September, 2024.
Recall that since the show of interests and lobbying, some forces within the PDP family have kicked against the choice of Ighodalo. Their arguments were either that he was an anointed candidate of Governor Godwin Obaseki or he was not a member of the PDP.
Despite their argument on Ighodalo’s membership of the party, some party members had genuinely countered the position and encouraged him to push on. They have argued that Section 50 of the 2017 PDP constitution as amended allows a member of the party who has been registered for a month to contest for elections or primaries under the flag of the party.
Some reports have alleged during the screening of a likely gang-up against Ighodalo.
It is alleged that the gang-up was masterminded by some top PDP leaders in the state l and those loyal to them, nick-named the Legacy PDP.
Another report had also claimed that eight governorship aspirants from the PDP in the state had United against Ighodalo. The candidates had argued that he was not qualified to contest as he allegedly joined the party in May 2023. But this was quickly dismissed by Section 50 of the PDP constitution of the party which says an individual can join the party and contest as long as he had been a member for a month before the primary.
The screening of aspirants which took place at the national secretariat in Abuja held despite the agitation by nine other aspirants seeking to block Ighodalo.
A source told this medium that despite their failed move to stop Ighodalo, they have continued to gather to see how they can achieve their aim.
“Even though they have failed in this one, we have information that they are looking at other options to drag him down,”
“He seems to be like Joseph who his brothers continued to plot against and he always ended up being thier saving grace,” the source said.