The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Friday expressed worry over the tendency of the state to slip into dictatorship under the watch of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state.
The Edo PDP stated that it was genuinely concerned about how some people who were never elected as councillors gathered on Friday morning to impeach the leadership of the Oredo Local Government Area of the state led by Dr Tom Obaseki.
The party warned that such a trend is a precursor to dictatorship in the state.
Addressing journalists late Friday evening at the state secretariat of the party, the chairman, Caretaker Committee of the party, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, called on traditional rulers, and opinion leaders to intervene and save democracy just as he called on security agencies to take seriously notice of the ugly development in the state.
Aziegbemi, who addressed the press conference in the company of the acting State Secretary, Chris Nehikhare, said the party was drawing the attention of Nigerians and Edo residents because of what happened in Oredo Local Government Area on Friday morning when people not known and not elected broke into the council secretariat to act.
The Edo PDP Chairman added that the 12 elected councillors of the council area had been hiding after their leader was threatened and attacked, stressing that the authentic 12 councillors later met and made a video after what transpired in their chamber.
Aziegbemi said “We are asking, what is going on in Edo? How can under this governor, how can he allow impostors to say that they have driven away the elected people in the council.
“People that didn’t contest elections, people that don’t have a certificate of returns, they will just gather in one room and say they have impeached the leader of the house, they have impeached the council Chairman, and everyone is quiet?
“We have said this before our traditional rulers, our opinion moulders, our religious leaders in Edo State. They are letting down the Edo people. If they imagine that this is about politics, that we should leave politicians to do what they do, it will get to a point where this sky will fall on everybody’s head.
“So, we have deemed it necessary to invite you to have this emergency press conference and to call the attention of the President, the IGP, and the DG SSS, to what is happening in Edo State this morning. And we’re urging them, very urgently for that matter, to please take this issue very seriously and deal with it now that they can still deal with it.”
It would be recalled that in the last three weeks, there has been a gale of impeachment of local government areas chairmen across the 18 councils of the state.
The resort to impeachment followed the purported suspension of the council chairmen by the Edo State House of Assembly, a decision that the state High Court described as illegal given the July 17, 2024, judgement of the Supreme Court granting autonomy to local governments across the country.
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