The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, on Monday stated that its agenda for the next political dispensation is to ensure that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not re-elected in 2027.
The State Caretaker Committee Chairman of the party, Tony Aziegbemi, made this known during a stakeholders’ meeting of party members, leaders, stakeholders, and critical supporters held in Benin City.
Aziegbemi, who also spoke on last Thursday’s Supreme Court judgment which reaffirmed the election of Senator Monday Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress, APC candidate in the September 21, 2024, governorship election, said the party must unite to ensure that President Tinubu does not return to Aso Rock.
According to him, “The next thing I am urging everyone of us on behalf of PDP in Edo State is how to get Tinubu out of presidency in 2027. That is our next target.
“They have ruined the economy of this nation and the next thing is to make sure that he is removed from power in 2027. That is the mandate we are charging you going forward.
“The next task and agenda is to remove Tinubu from the presidency because we cannot continue with this suffering, we cannot continue with the way things are being run aground in this country.
“So, we charge you not to be deterred. Don’t worry yourself, God in His infinite mercy will give all of us the strength and the will to go through this because hard times don’t last, but tough people do.”
On his part, Barrister Jimoh Ijegbai, a former Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs as well as Commissioner for Education under Governor Godwin Obaseki’s administration, noted that the removal of President Tinubu from office in 2027 would be a daunting task under the crisis-ridden PDP.
Ijegbai, who was also the former elected Chairman of Owan East Local Government Area, urged members not to pretend that all is well within the party, both at the state and national levels.
“Our chairman has spoken well. Our chairman is telling us to prepare to take President Tinubu out of government. I don’t know which vehicle you are expecting us to use to remove the President from office. We will be deceiving ourselves to still think that we have a party that we are going to use as of today. A house that is divided against itself cannot hold.
“You have called for nominations from Edo Central and Edo South for the Senatorial and House of Representatives by-election. Already the other factions of the party are announcing their own candidates. Are we going to start a round of litigation right from the High Court down to the Supreme Court? I don’t think we should go that road again.
“So, I want to urge the party, our leaders, to look at it very critically. We are not ready to start following that road again of litigation.
“If we must continue to participate, we must clearly know where we belong in the PDP. Unless and except we do that and we start calling ourselves together to think that we have a party called PDP, I think we are deceiving ourselves.
“The earlier we look at it critically, and everybody is carried along and we take a joint decision on how we are going to go in Edo, then we are not ready for anything.
“We should not pretend about it. And let nobody deceive us to think that we will continue waiting for the National Convention of PDP; it will not achieve anything for us,” he stated.
