Bye-election: PDP screening committee in Edo working to destroy party, says Bob-Manuel Umoru
Publicity Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Edo State Caretaker Committee, Bob-Manuel Umoru has accused the party’s screening committee for the forthcoming bye-election of working against PDP’s victory.
In a statement he personally signed, the party chieftain accused the screening committee of dancing to the tune of Former Governor Obaseki.
He accused the former governor of being behind the disqualification of two popular aspirants; Festus Edogun, John Yakubu ahead of the August 16, 2025 bye-elections in the Edo Central Senatorial District and Ovia Federal Constituency.
Addressing the party’s National Working Committee (NWC), Umoru registered his displeasure and frustration over the conduct of the committee wondering if PDP was ready to win an election in the state.
Urging the party to take a precise step to redeem itself from the defeat it faced in the last election, the chieftain said, “The Screening committee for the bye-election in Edo State came with a mindset to further destroy the party. They acted out a script written by Governor Obaseki and executed it with brutal undemocratic recklessness and manipulation. The committee was compromised by shameless agents of self-exiled Former Governor Godwin Obaseki to push forward his preferred candidate, Joe Okojie, who is widely known as a major architect of the crisis in Edo PDP.
“Most disgracefully, the committee hastily and unlawfully disqualified Mr. Festus Edogun, one of the party’s most popular aspirants, on flimsy and laughable grounds. This action is not only unjust but reveals a premeditated plan to disqualify a very formidable and credible aspirant and hand over the ticket to Obaseki’s CBN Agricultural loan coordinator and ally, Joe Okojie.
“Let it be known that both Mr. Festus Edogun and Hon. John Yakubu are widely acknowledged even by the blind and deaf as the two leading aspirants with massive grassroots appeal in Edo Central. Their popularity transcends wards, clans, and party affiliation. Denying any of them from participation in the primary is a fraud and a betrayal of the democratic tenets the PDP claims to uphold.”
He further advised that “if the goal is to win elections, the party must open the process and let the people decide. Instead, the process has been skewed in favour of Joe Okojie, a man who has allegedly fraternized with leaders of the ADC and played significant roles in demarketing the PDP brand during the last election cycles.
“We demand, without equivocation, that the appeal of Mr. Edogun be given due attention, and that all qualified aspirants be allowed to contest under a free, fair, and transparent process. Anything short of this will not only plunge the PDP into fresh rounds of litigation, that may lead to disqualification of the party from contesting this bye-election.”
