2023: INEC recognises Orbih’s list as Obaseki records zero candidates

There was celebration in the Legacy Group of Chief Dan Orbih, the National Vice-Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo State after the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, confirmed the list of candidates who are aligned to his faction of the party as candidates in the National Assembly election.

Governor Godwin Obaseki’s camp recorded zero candidates as captured in the released list for Edo state in the 2023 general elections.

It was a joyful noise in the Orbih camp as the candidates aligned to Governor Godwin Obaseki were not anywhere near the INEC validated list.

Both camps have been flexing muscles in a supremacy battle through the courts over over the candidates’ list.

Those whose names are on the INEC released would represent the Edo PDP in the National and State assembly elections.

Both factions had conducted primaries but the INEC had endorsed the primary conducted by the Orbih faction having monitored it.

Attempts to reverse the recognition had been a ding-dong in the courts with the Orbih traction predicating its claim of of authenticity on the INEC recognition.

Sources in Edo State disclosed that politicians aligned to Governor Obaseki are now left in the cold and confused as to how to relate with their acclaimed candidatures which they have been projecting in recent electioneering.

A source in the Orbih camp was full of joy, saying: ” this is victory at last for us. We thank God.”

The source was particularly glad for Hon. Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, the outgoing member of the House of Representatives, Oredo Federal Constituency who surrendered his governorship aspiration to accommodate Governor Obaseki when he joined the party from the APC in June 2020.

Ogbeide-Ihama was listed as the PDP candidate for Edo South.

Following his gesture and the crisis that followed, Ogbeide-Ihama became a target for the Obaseki camp who sought to remove him from the party and also upend his Senate ambition.

Reports said that several leaders in the Obaseki camp had been reaching out to Orbih for them to be accommodated in the future political arrangements that are fastly crystallising on account of the INEC recognition and court validation.