A civil war has literally broken out in the camp of Obidients especially among their top social media influencers over which candidate to support in the 2024 Edo governorship election coming up in September.
At the center of this storm, which is raging on twitter (X) are two top Obidient influencers, FS Yusuf and Harry (@harrizone98). The immediate cause of this Obidients’ civil war is the move by FS Yusuf, who had developed a reputation for gaslighting those who dared to hold a contrary choice from his, to pitch his support for the PDP governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo instead of the candidate of his party Olumide Akpata.
FS Yusuf did not stop there however, he went on a drive to surreptitiously recruit his fellow Obidient influencers to join the Asue Ighodalo media campaign. Unfortunately the move blew on his face as one of his potential recruits, Harry (@harrizone98) exposed his attempt to recruit him to work for the PDP for a fee of N150,000 only.
In a couple of WhatsApp chat screenshots shared by Harry on twitter exposing their conversation, Yusuf was seen cleverly pitching the Asue gig to Harry. In one of the screenshots, Yusuf said, “some top guy for Edo wan form movement. A nonpartisan movement like the Obidient movement to shape the political conversation and inspire the emergence of credible candidates into the 2024 election.”
It turns out that the ‘top guy’ referred to by FS Yusuf is connected to the Edo PDP candidate, Asue Ighodalo.
Signs of a crack among Obidients on the Edo 2024 guber question first emerged after the emergence of Olumide Akpata (SAN) as the governorship candidate of the Abure faction of the Labour Party in Edo State.
Some popular Obidients from Edo State felt it was improper for Labour Party to field a candidate from Edo South Senatorial District, which is the same zone with the outgoing Governor Godwin Obaseki. In fact, Olumide Akpata, the Labour Party governorship candidate is from the same local government with Gov. Obaseki.
Other Obidients mostly from outside Edo State however have been rooting for wholesale support for any Labour Party candidate with no regards to zoning or equitable rotation of power – two major pillars upon which many Obidients hinged their support for Mr. Peter Obi in the 2023 presidential election.
In the ongoing war of words in the Obidient camp, past statements and positions from popular Obidient influencers have become the reference point to reveal hypocrisy. In the case of the vocal FS Yusuf, his fellow Obidients have been unearthing past tweets where he called for Obidients to vote for Labour Party ‘top to bottom’ saying that the Labour Party needs governors, house of Assembly members etc to build a strong political force.
His current position represents a complete u-turn from his view few months ago leading many Obidients to accuse him of using Mr. Peter Obi presidential campaign to build clout and followership. FS Yusuf, who is known to block anyone who challenges his position has been on a blocking spree since the Obidient civil war over Edo 2024 started.