Secretary of the Peoples Democratic Party, Edo State chapter, Hilary Otsu, said the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, should be blamed if the PDP fails to field a candidate in the upcoming Edo governorship election.

Mr Otsu said during an interview in Abuja on Thursday that the National Working Committee of the party should also share in the blame.

He was reacting to the prospects of the party failing to have a candidate for the election given the crisis that trailed its ward congresses election.

Most of the governorship aspirants rejected the outcome of the congresses which will form the nucleus of voters in the primaries.

However, the chairman of the congresses election committee, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, said the elections were transparent.

Mr Otsu said it was incumbent on Mr Obaseki and NWC to initiate a genuine reconciliation process that would bring about unity in the Edo PDP.

“I believe that everything is about politics and can be resolved as such. The earlier this (reconciliation) is done the better. But if it is left to fester, then we stand the unfortunate risk of not fielding a candidate. In this case, the governor and the NWC must be ready to take responsibility for as far as Edo 2024 is concerned”, he said.

The secretary also said that the state executive committee was not satisfied with the ongoing process to pick the state’s party governorship candidate.

According to him, no one can be satisfied with a process which he alleged is flawed from the start.

“The mere fraud of depositing the congress materials in the custody of the state governor for “safekeeping” negates the principle of fairness in the process.

“I am sure that is why nine aspirants out of 10 protested, coupled with the fact that they were excluded,’’ he said.

He said their reactions could not be faulted given the huge investment they made, including about N40 million each to purchase forms.

(NAN)