The Edo State APC has said that it would soon release the names and photographs of the 17 Local government chairmen who defected from the PDP even as it insists that it points to evidence of the public’s rejection of the PDP.
The party’s position is contained in a statement by Barr Peter Uwadiae Igbinigie the State Publicity Secretary on the defection of Rt. Hon. Blessing Agbebaku, Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly from PDP to the APC, which has ignited a war of words between the two parties.
Igbinigie was reacting to the development, after the PDP, through its Caretaker Chairman, Tony Aziegbemi, downplayed the significance of the LGA council Chairmen and the Speaker’s defection, describing it as “the public unveiling of a long-standing betrayal.”
According to Aziegbemi, Agbebaku had been secretly aligned with the APC for months, especially evident in his actions surrounding the suspension of elected PDP local government chairmen.
“The event in Benin City was not a defection but a coronation of a man who has long since left our party in principle,” Aziegbemi said. He accused the Speaker of colluding with APC’s governorship candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, to undermine the PDP-led administration at the grassroots level.
According to him, the refusal to reinstate suspended PDP chairmen even after the expiration of their suspension further confirmed Agbebaku’s political bias.
Aziegbemi described the defection as “a classic case of political opportunism, driven by ambition and personal interest, not ideological conviction.” He also challenged the APC to substantiate its claim that 17 council chairmen had joined the party, arguing that only political appointees—rather than elected officials—had actually defected.
However, Igbinigie dismissed Aziegbemi’s assertions, likening them to the “rants of a drowning party clinging to denial.” He argued that if Agbebaku had indeed been an APC loyalist, the PDP should have taken action much earlier.
“Agbebaku’s defection is not just symbolic—it marks the crumbling of the PDP’s credibility and structure in Edo State,” Igbinigie said. He further attacked the PDP’s claims over council chairmen, asserting that the Obaseki-led administration had installed loyalists through illegal caretaker appointments, not credible elections.
The APC Publicity Secretary criticized Aziegbemi for invoking the term “holocaust” in his statement, calling it “reckless and insensitive.” He concluded that Edo is not in turmoil but undergoing “a political awakening” as more stakeholders distance themselves from what he called “a dying party led by self-serving elites.”
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