Ijaw leader Chief Edwin Clark on Monday urged Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki to join the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to realise his second term ambition.
He called on the PDP to adopt Obaseki as its candidate.
Clark believes that the opposition party has a great chance to reclaim the state from the All Progressives Congress (APC) with Obaseki as its standard bearer.
The APC disqualified Obaseki from contesting its primary election due to discrepancies in his certificates.
Clark, in a statement on Obaseki’s disqualification, said: “While, I am not a member of the APC, or of PDP, or any other political party, for that matter, it is regrettable that the APC in Edo State, is being destroyed as it was in some other states in 2019 when, due to the same manipulation and rascally interferences leading to wrong decisions, the APC lost Zamfara, Bauchi, and Adamawa states to the PDP, and did not have candidates in Rivers State for the elections.
“It is, therefore, most disgusting that in 2020, APC is towing that same path in Edo State. If the leadership of the APC, including Mr President, fails to intervene in this unfortunate crisis in Edo State, I would appeal to the opposition, PDP, to take advantage of the situation.
“I repeat, PDP should take advantage of this unfortunate crisis in APC to adopt Obaseki as their candidate.
“It is a golden opportunity for the PDP to take over Edo State because Governor Obaseki has so far, done well.”
Kano State Governor Abdullahi Ganduje, backed the APC for disqualifying Obaseki.
He told reporters at a briefing to mark his fifth year in office that the APC was being conscious of the legal implications of clearing a candidate with question marks on their certificates.
Ganduje said: “We are all aware of how the APC won the election in Bayelsa, and due to legal issues, we lost that election. So the party is fully conscious of that and does not want to overlook certain issues as far as election procedures are concerned.
“We are following our party’s constitution and manifesto; we are following the electoral law; we are following the Constitution in trying to manage our election issues in the party, which is very important.”