Edo State Deputy Governor and winner of the factional People’s Democratic Party (PDP) guber primaries, Philip Shaibu, has said that the assurance that for the PDP to win the election, he has to be the candidate representing the PDP in the 2024 Edo state guber elections.
In an interview on ARISE NEWSNIGHT on Thursday, Shaibu stated that the people of Edo had chosen him as their preferred candidate, saying that the other factional primaries in which another aspirant, Asue Ighodalo, emerged as winner, was a ‘cosmetic’ election primaries.
The deputy governor said, “There is no problem with PDP. I can assure you that if PDP wants to win this year’s election, the people have made their choice, and their choice is Comrade Philip Shaibu as their candidate. Anything short of Philip Shaibu as their candidate that means PDP is not ready to win Edo state. They have spoken very loud and what they did today is an expression of what they want in Edo. And the will of the people cannot be subverted, and if you attempt to subvert the will of the people, the consequence is that you will lose the election.”
In a bid to prove his authenticity as the PDP representative for the elections, he said, “What makes me the authentic candidate Is just like the governor just said. PDP is a party that follows rules, and the rules of the party says that delegates have to be elected and those delegates that are elected will in turn elect the party flag bearer. So, the authentic delegates that were elected in the last delegate election elected me today as the flag bearer of PDP. The other factional primaries that took place, I would see it as cosmetic.
“For my primaries, you can see the organic support. They tried to disenfranchise the authentic delegates, but they were determined to have their candidate and they were determined to save their party.”
Addressing the presence of the chairman presiding over the Edo primaries election at the other faction’s primaries, Shaibu said, “It is just unfortunate that the governor of Zamfara and my very good friend and former colleague in the legislative arm, the governor of Delta state that is doing beautifully well with the bridges he has started constructing in Delta are part of this parallel primaries that took place today. But nonetheless, i think they were invited to come and preside over a cosmetic primaries. Cosmetic in the sense that the delegates that were given to them for them to use to produce the next governor are not the delegates that are meant for the election.”
He said that he is not arrogant about his victory because the victory is for all of Edo state, and he needs his fellow aspirants to work with him to build up the state.
“Like I said primaries have come and gone. As a leader, what I will be doing next is to reach out to all other aspirants. Already, we have a union, eight-man union, aspirant union. So, the person that will be coming on board now will be Asue Ighodalo to join us for us to build an Edo of our dream,” he said.
Speaking on the issue of zoning in Edo state, Shaibu asserted that elections are not about zoning, but about capacity and competence. He then said that he is bringing a wealth of experience that other aspirants do not have, which is experience in both the public and the private sector.
Shaibu then said that Edo state governor Godwin Obaseki had promised that whoever wins the primaries is the one that he will support, using the medium of the interview to urge the governor to honour his word and support him in the 2024 Edo state gubernatorial elections.
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
Follow us on:
