Ahead of the September 21, 2024 governorship election in Edo State, a former member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Board of Trustees (BoT), Charles Idahosa, says he regrets stopping Governor Godwin Obaseki from resigning in 2020 in the heat of the fight with his predecessor, Adams Oshiomhole.
He also said he regretted supporting the Governor during the 2020 governorship election in the state under the PDP platform.
Idahosa disclosed these on Monday while announcing his defection to APC, two weeks after he resigned from the PDP.
Speaking to journalists shortly after his declaration at his residence in Benin City, Idahosa said, “My greatest regret is stopping Governor Godwin Obaseki from resigning in 2020 after he was frustrated out of the APC in his bid to seek reelection on the party’s platform.
“In 2020, Governor Obaseki had cried to me over the ill-treatment meted out to him by his predecessor and former national chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole and was considering resigning.”
Idahosa said he encouraged Obaseki to keep hope alive, adding he (Idahosa) personally fought the battle for the governor to win his reelection.
“Obaseki’s utterance during the inauguration of the PDP Campaign Council for the 2024 election was heartless and uncomplimentary when he accused the defectors from PDP as having received huge sums of money before their defection,” he added.
Idahosa said he dumped the PDP and rejoined the APC, a party he dumped in 2020, because of the “damning deeds of the Obaseki-led administration in the last four years.”
He however urged the Edo APC leadership to work in synergy ahead of the governorship election, noting “the greatest misfortune to befall the APC is for Godwin Obaseki to install a successor.”
While pledging to support the governorship candidate of the APC, Senator Monday Okphebholo, Idahosa said the next governor needed “street survival instinct and not doctoral degree (PhD) or big grammar” to succeed Obaseki.
Idahosa charged Edo people and the APC to unite to stop the governor and the PDP governorship candidate.
“Four years later, we are all wiser. I am back to the APC, which is my family. It is homecoming for me and I am very comfortable. At 71, I am not going to be a threat to anybody. I am joining the APC to work. Nobody should be afraid or scared that Charles Idahosa is joining the APC because I won’t be contesting any position,” he said.
He vowed to give his all to ensure the APC wins the governorship election in his Uhunmwonde Local Government Council and Edo South Senatorial district as a whole.
Receiving Idahosa, the APC state secretary, Lawrence Okah, said the former member of the PDP Board of Trustees (BoT) is a man of honour and founding member of the APC.
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