A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Pastor Leo Olu Martins, has explained why the one-year memorial rally of the September 21 governorship election in the state was aborted
Martins, who is one of the conveners of the memorial rally, revealed that the top hierachy of the PDP in the state, including the party’s governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Osarodion Ogie ditched him and his co conveners when they were undergoing drilling by the Department of State Services (DSS) on the now aborted rally.
Responding to enquiries in an exclusive chat, he said: “Sunday 21st is going to be exactly one year that that election (Edo governorship) took place.
“We considered it a rape on democracy. We considered it a heist because as at 8 pm that Saturday evening 95 percent of the result had already come in through iRev and we were already rejoicing.
“I had people who were congratulating me from APC ‘so you guys won the election, until the things that happened happened. Like the Englishman will say, the rest is history.
“One year down the line we are still hurting. We’re still dissatisfied. We still feel cheated not because we’re bad losers but because if you won me fair and square I will subscribe to your victory.
“But, if you didn’t win me fair and square and I saw my victory in front of me and you stole it from me, no matter what happens, years later I am still going to be complaining.
“Some people had argued that but the Supreme Court has decided on the case. I said yes, but there’s a court of public opinion. I have a right to hold my views inspite of what the Supreme Court had said.
“They’re my personal views. And in my personal view, it’s my conviction that inspite of the Supreme Court judgement, we (PDP) were cheated in that election.
“We were raped because the bulk of what the Supreme Court talked about hovered around technicalities not really on the substance of the matter.
“So, we still feel aggrieved, we feel hurt. It was on that basis that we said let us do a memorial rally that’s what we called it.
“We thought just to keep the matter fresh in the minds of people that by this time last year we were looking at our victory but we never got it.”
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On how Ighodalo, and other top notchers of the party ditched him and his co conveners of the botched rally, he said: “None of us who convened the meeting contested for any election and we were not the dramatis personae.
“There’s a candidate for the election. There’s a chairman of the party. There’s a deputy governorship candidate for the election and leaders of the party.
“And can I quickly add that as all of this was going on the idea was to keep that election and indeed the PDP in the minds of the people.
“We didn’t get a call from the top hierarchy of the party or from the chairman. Not from any critical stakeholder at that level. Not a call. Not to even encourage us.
“The more damning one is that the dramatis personae; the individual himself, that’s Dr. Asue Ighodalo didn’t even call us once to identify with us.
“When we said that the DSS was grilling us, the only response to it was whether we ran the programme by the party chairman.
“Not about our safety. Not that why is the DSS after you? Can we deal with that first of all? It’s not about our safety.
“For him it’s about processing. Did we run it by the chairman? So if we didn’t run it by the chairman, as they say here, anything you see take it like that.
“That was heartbreaking for me. And that experience was documented. He didn’t even ask what’s happening.
“As we speak now, since finishing with the DSS, nobody has called to show solidarity. You see why people resign from political parties?”
