The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has stated that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) will not win the state governorship election if they do not choose him as their candidate.
Shaibu made this statement during an interview on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily on Friday.
Allub Times reports that Asue Ighodalo won the PDP primary at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City on Thursday, while Shaibu won a separate election at a different location.
Despite this, Shaibu insists that he is the true candidate of the party for the September 21 election, claiming that the people of Edo do not support Ighodalo, who he says is not a local candidate.
He said, “The option is for the PDP not to go and argue against my candidacy, if they do that PDP will lose Edo State. Edo people do not want Asue Ighodalo to be the governor of Edo State because he is not a homeboy, they know.
“They are looking for someone that they know, somebody they can feel, somebody they can touch. PDP has a date with history; delegates have spoken that they want Shuaibu, and I can bet you that the other eight aspirants will support Shuaibu if they party back him.
“If the party decides to join us in court to argue for Ighodalo then PDP winning Edo State will be shaky because Asue will not be accepted by the people,” Shaibu said.
The deputy governor criticized the primary election that selected Ighodalo, stating that it was organized by the state party executive instead of the national party executive.
He argued that the state executive and the governor are supporters of Ighodalo, so they would not have conducted a fair election. Shaibu maintained that he was elected by the genuine delegates of the party in the state.
He said, “I was elected by the authentic delegates, what is key is who are those that elected the governor’s preferred candidate Asue and who are those that elected Philip Shaibu? I think in the coming days we will know who among them are authentic.”
Shaibu mentioned that his current relationship with Governor Godwin Obaseki is not the strongest right now.
He believes that his desire to become governor himself might be causing tension between them.
