The national vice chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South-South, Mr. Stephen Oru yesterday said that all the leadership of the party from the zone have resolved to relocate to Benin City, the Edo State capital in preparation for the July 14 state governorship election.
He said that the zone structures of the party was working towards winning the governorship election in order to have a complete South-South PDP states in preparatory for the 2015 general elections.
According to Oru, “Though President Goodluck Jonathan has not expressed interest in the 2015 presidential race and he is qualified like any other Nigerian for the race, it is important for the ruling PDP to have 100 percent domination in the home region of the president with a victory in the Edo State governorship poll.”
The vice-chairman of the PDP South-South zone, who led the executives of the zone to the inauguration of the Bayelsa executive council of the party in Yenagoa, said the party in the region was focussed on the governorship poll in Edo State and would temporarily relocate to Benin City ahead of the election due to the importance attached to the state and the likely second term of president Jonathan.
Oru added, “The PDP won Edo State through the ballot and lost it to the ACN through the court in 2007. We shall reclaim it through the ballot. It is a clarion call to all loyalists of the PDP in the South-South. We shall be relocating to Benin City to ensure a total victory. We shall do anything within the law to return Edo State to PDP.
“When former President Olusegun Obasanjo came to power in 1999, there was no PDP State in the South-West. During the second election, we won six with the exception of Lagos State. But now, during Jonathan, it is important that we have 100 per cent PDP in the South-South to affirm a base for the Jonathan second term in 2015.”