Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, of the Peoples Democratic Party will face his major contender from the All Progressives Congress, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, in the September 19 governorship election in the state.

This follows the withdrawal of all the three governorship aspirants of the PDP, which paved the way for the emergence of Obaseki.

Obaseki became the lone aspirant for the race after ratification by party delegates following the withdrawal of his main rival, Kenneth Imansuagbon.

However, the sorting of votes is still ongoing as of 11:00 pm in the PDP primary supervised by the Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, and his Zamfara and Oyo counterparts, Bello Matawalle and Seyi Makinde, respectively.

Earlier in the week, two other aspirants Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama and Gideon Ikhine also stepped down for Obaseki.

Imansuagbon said he stepped down because of his desire to build a strong and united PDP in the state, adding that though it was a painful decision for him and his supporters across the state and beyond, he refused to be

a spanner in the clog of the party.

Meanwhile, the Board of Trustees of the party has congratulated Obaseki.

The Chairman of the PDP BoT, Senator Walid Jibrin, in a statement on Thursday, called for unity among party members for the PDP to emerge as the ruling party in 2023.

The BoT chairman said,

I want to appeal to the leadership and all members of PDP to continue making our party strong and more united in our efforts to rule Nigeria come 2023. The party should shun actions that will not bring progress.

15 parties to contest in Edo

Meanwhile, the Resident Electoral Commissioner in Edo State, Dr. Johnson Samikiem, on Thursday said 15 political parties would participate in the September 19 governorship election in the state.

He said this at the main bowl of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, Benin City, where he monitored the governorship primary of the PDP.

He said the Independent National Electoral Commission was well-prepared to conduct a hitch-free governorship election in the state.

INEC is fully prepared to conduct a free and credible election. And in this regard, we have 15 political parties, which have registered with us to participate in the forthcoming governorship election in the state,

Samikiem stated.

Justin Nwosu

Justin Nwosu is the founder and publisher of Flavision. His core interest is in writing unbiased news about Nigeria in particular and Africa in general. He’s a strong adherent of investigative journalism, with a bent on exposing corruption, abuse of power and societal ills.