By Simon Ebegbulem

BENIN CITY—THE Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in Edo South senatorial district of Edo State has explained that it decided to set up committee to advise aspirants to avoid crisis after primaries and not to impose any particular candidate.

The State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Mr. Matthew Urhoghide who gave the clarification, said the leadership of the party in the South took that decision due to the high number of aspirants in the area.

According to him, “we discovered that the aspirants in Edo South are more than what we have in Edo North and Central so we have to manage the situation. We have over one hundred aspirants for the House of Assembly seats in Edo South but we only have eleven seats in the House. If you want to pick form for House of Assembly it is about N1.5million.

“For the women they are exempted from paying. But this money is none refundable. So, the leaders now said rather than rush to pay this money why can’t you go and discuss among yourselves on who should go because you must know your political strength as a politician. We don’t want a situation where after they must have paid the money and lose we will start reconciling them.

“The number is too large. For House of Representatives you pay N3m, for the senate N5.5million. That was why the committee was set up to give advise to them and not even to prune down the number because you cannot force anybody to run or withdraw.

“We don’t want a situation where one will go and borrow money and later lose the primaries then he or she will start fighting. That will not be good for the party,” he said.