Gabriel Enogholase
26 June 2008
Lagos — Former Deputy Governor of Edo State, the Rev. Peter Obadan, says it is time former Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Peoples Democratic Party, Chief Tony Anenih, retired from politics gracefully.
Rev. Obadan, who in an interview in Benin yesterday, said that Chief Anenih for over three decades had played his part in the democratic process of the state and the country, saying that all he needed now is to take his deserved bow.
Describing the former PDP BOT Chairman as "a masquerade that has danced well in the arena and he is going home now tired," Obadan accused Anenih of stoking the fire that was destroying the PDP in the state for his own personal interest.
The former deputy governor spoke against the backdrop of the decision of the national working committee of the PDP that ordered Chief Anenih to nominate a fresh chairman for the PDP in Edo State against the wish of the governor, Prof. Oserheimen Osunbor, and his supporters.
Insisting that his opinion of Chief Anenih's role in the PDP crisis in the state was without prejudice to his personal relationship with the big politician, he added, "I revere him and I call him 'daddy' anytime I see him. He is our father".
He reaffirmed the position held by loyalists to Governor Oserheimen Osunbor that the state executive committee of the party produced by the state congress of the party under the Chairmanship of Edward Sadoh, was still constitutionally valid until a fresh congress otherwise decides.
However loyalists of Anenih took exception to Obadan comment and accused members of the Osunbor-led faction of rejecting the proposal of the NWC of the party, adding that they have not been fair to Chief Anenih.
Edo State Commissioner in the Niger Delta Development Commission, Mr. Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, said Anenih has always been the leader of the party in the state, and advised people like Obadan to always accord him his deserved respect.
He said the Osunbor group who were laying claim to the Edward Sadoh-led state party executive were not in the ward congresses of the party, but suddenly emerged from nowhere to lay claim to forming a state executive committee.
In a recent interview, another key member of Anenih's faction, Mr. Nosa Adams, said having resolved the Edo PDP, this was not the time to make further recriminations.
Everybody, he said, should now come together to support the PDP government of Osunbor and fight off the opposition by the Action Congress and its governorship candidate, Adams Oshiomhole.
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