By USMAN ALIYU

Edo State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently intervene in what it alleged as escalating “provocations, distortions, and political hostility” by Gov. Monday Okpebholo’s administration.

The party made the call in a statement in Benin on Tuesday by Dan Osa-Ogbegie, State Publicity Secretary of the PDP.

Osa-Ogbegie said the APC-led government was waging a “coordinated and increasingly reckless campaign” against former Gov. Godwin Obaseki.

He claimed that influential APC figures were coordinating actions aimed at undermining former Governor Godwin Obaseki and destabilising governance in the state.

The publicity secretary warned that the situation was “overheating the polity” and could trigger wider instability if left unchecked.

“For months, the APC-led administration has deliberately sought to bait, distract and tarnish former Governor Godwin Obaseki.

“We call on President Bola Tinubu to rein in his party members in Edo.

“The conduct of Monday Okpebholo and his handlers is overheating the polity and may precipitate a seismic conflagration if not immediately curtailed,” he said.

According to him, the state government has embarked on a systematic dismantling of key reforms and development initiatives implemented under Obaseki.

“These are not acts of governance. They are acts of vendetta, bitterness and political vandalism,” he insisted.

He alleged attacks on Saro Farms in Orhionmwon and Ovia, which he described as “a devastating blow to investor confidence” and “a direct assault on the agricultural revolution Obaseki championed.”

Osa-Ogbegie also cited suspension of the Benin Enterprise Park, which he alleged was “mindlessly” halted and publicly discredited “for no reason other than APC’s inability to tolerate any developmental legacy tied to Obaseki.

He also alleged hostility towards the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA), including the “security collapse” that allowed hoodlums to invade the facility.

He claimed it was “a calculated attempt to stain Obaseki’s globally celebrated cultural reforms.

He also regretted the reversal of EdoGIS digital land reforms, which he said returned Edo “to an era of racketeering, political land seizures and institutional opacity.”

“Sabotage of EdoBEST, the basic education reform programme praised internationally, which is being undermined through ‘political interference and anti-merit appointments.’

“Intimidation of agro-industrial investors including incidents linked to the Presco land controversy,” he said.

The spokesperson of the opposition argued that these actions collectively reflect “a government run by godfathers, not governance.”

He, however, praised the former governor for refusing to engage in public altercations with his successors.

“Despite persistent provocations, Godwin Obaseki has maintained dignity and restraint.

“He has refused to descend into insults and mudslinging perfected by Okpebholo and his handlers,” he said.

He noted that Obaseki’s ongoing engagements with Edo diasporans across Europe, North America, the Middle East and Africa had continued to “anger” APC leaders.

He reaffirmed, however, the party’s support for the former governor.

But in a rebuttal, Kassim Afegbua, Edo Commissioner for Information and Strategy, dismissed the PDP’s claims as laughable and rooted in frustration.

Afegbua said the PDP had no moral basis to criticise the current administration, arguing that the party was still grappling with its “fragmentation and self-inflicted destruction engineered by Obaseki himself.”

He accused the former governor of entering the PDP like “a bull in a China shop”, alleging that Obaseki fractured the once-united party into splinter groups such as Legacy PDP, New PDP and Government House PDP after riding on its platform to secure re-election.

“The lot of the fragmented Peoples Democratic Party are still in disarray, but the perks from the fugitive former governor are firing the adrenaline of those ostentatious dancers who have become jesters and coupon clippers back home,” Afegbua said.

The commissioner dismissed the achievements listed by the PDP as “weather-beaten conjectures that do not reflect reality”, describing the party’s statement as comic relief.

“Each time we intend to unwind, we tune to PDP Comedy Television to catch some hilarious sound bites of a party that has quixotically atrophied its opportunities and left the state in ruins,” he said. (NAN)