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By Andy Asemota
The face-off between the 18 suspended local government chairmen in Edo State and the state government took a new dimension on Friday as the Chairman of Owan West, his deputy and five councillors officially defected from the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the ruling All Progressive Congress (APC).
The council chairman, Hon. Dickson Ahonsi, his vice chairman, Hon. Victoria Aseje, and the council majority leader, his deputy, the council chief Whip and two others were received by the Edo APC Chairman, Jarrett Tenebe, represented by the party secretary, Mr. Lawrence Okah.
Fielding questions from newsmen at the party secretariat, shortly after their defection, Hon. Ahonsi warned the 17 other suspended LG chairmen and their deputies to dump PDP for APC.
“My message to them (other LG bosses) is that they should come and join me (in APC). I think this (party) is a better place.”
Ahonsi, who dismissed any insinuation on whether he was compelled to defect to the ruling party, said: “My decision is based on my personal conviction,” adding, “my decision is not based on whether there are court matters or not.”
This is against the background of litigations initiated by the Edo PDP, its different stakeholders including 18 suspended local government chairmen against APC and the State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, over Edo 2024 and suspension clamped on the Council bosses respectively.
Meanwhile, no fewer than four of the embattled chairmen and their deputies in Egor, Owan East, Uhunmwode and Orhionmwon LGAs had been reportedly impeached by their councillors as the possibility of the impeachment moves against the others loom larger by the day
Earlier, the APC Secretary, Lawrence Okah, reiterated the assertion of Ahonsi that more local government principal functionaries would soon join the party, saying: “We are ready to receive everybody as soon as possible.”
Presenting the symbol of the party, the broom, to the new members of the APC, Okah charged them to “sweep the remaining PDP members in the local government into APC.
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