Ahead of the September 21 Edo State governorship election, the factional candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Mr Philip Shaibu, has vowed to carry on with his preparations even if doing so would cause his impeachment by the state House of Assembly.
Shaibu, the deputy governor of the state, said this at a press conference in Abuja on Saturday.
On Thursday, the returning officer in the PDP governorship primary and Governor of Zamfara State, Dauda Lawal, announced Asue Ighodalo as the winner of the delegate election, having polled a total of 577 votes.
However, in the parallel primaries that took place at the Benin residence of the Deputy Governor, the returning officer, Bartholomew Moses, declared Shaibu the winner, saying he won “with over 300 votes.”
Addressing journalists in Abuja, Shaibu described himself as the authentic candidate, noting that the primary that produced Ighodalo was nothing short of a social party attended by “people who wore aso ebi from all over the place.”
Shaibu, who defected to the PDP alongside the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, in 2020 from the All Progressives Congress, said his office has been subjected to all manner of degrading treatment by the governor, adding however that he is the man to win the election for the PDP.
He said, “Even as we speak, my team has been calling me that, ‘Look at what these people are doing. They are saying they are going to impeach you, that you have gotten too far.’ They are threatening to impeach me.
“And I said, well, if fighting for my rights and all of us collectively triggers my impeachment, so be it.”
Shaibu, who described Ighodalo as “my far elder brother,” however, urged the PDP to know that the lawyer-turned-politician does not have what it takes to win the poll.
“If the party wants to win the election, they will not go for Ighodalo. If the party wants to win the election, the people have spoken, and they have spoken very loud and clearly.
“If people can stand bullets to say this is who we want, then the party should follow that direction,” he added.
The deputy governor also said that he has appointed former APC Deputy Chairman, Edo State Chapter, Pastor Kenneth Asekomhe, to chair a committee to reach out to Ighodalo’s camp to forge a common front for the PDP in the election.
“He is the chairman of the committee that I have set up to reach out to the Ighodalo group for us to have a discussion to see how we will go because it is only him that is not on board,” he further said.
Shaibu also said he is working with the National Vice Chairman (South-South), Mr Dan Orbih.
“The leader of the legacy coalition is Dan Orbih. We are working together and that is why it is important that Asue (Ighodalo) join the legacy coalition because the coalition is those that were in APC that moved to PDP to meet those that were already in PDP.
“Those that were in PDP that we met are the legacy. The coalition now is that we joined the old PDP moving together because we don’t want to hear new and old PDP and that is why we call it a legacy coalition,” Shaibu stated.
On whether the Independent National Electoral Commission monitored the primary election that produced him, Shaibu spoke affirmatively without going into details.
“INEC and the party were there but I will not disclose a lot. If we don’t go to court, fine. But if we do go to court, all this information will be unveiled,” he threatened.
