AHEAD of September Edo State Gubernatorial election, Deputy Governor of the State, Philip Shaibu has said that the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP will be defeated without him, just as he described the primaries that produced Asue Ighodalo as the candidate of the party as an Owambe party and laughable.
According to him, the event even though was attended by the party’s heavy weight where people wore aso-ebi, was not an issue against the backdrop that delegates determine primaries and not party big wigs.
Speaking with Journalists yesterday in Abuja during an interactive session, Shaibu who emerged winner of parallel Edo PDP primary election, said that rumours of impeachment plot against him because he has expressed his constitutional right of contesting for election is a joke carried too far, warning that with the present scenario, intimidation and harassment of people from any quarter was not needed now, but consensus on how to build the party.
Shaibu said, “in the coming days, I don’t want to go into details of certain things that we will be meeting in court because some of these things are not something I should speak to. But as we move on, things will keep on unfolding and you’ll get the nitty-gritty at the end of the day. So that is where we are today.
“And I am appealing to the PDP National Working Committee that if they want to win Edo state, they should just abide by what has happened. They should just support my candidacy and PDP will win Edo state. You can see how the primaries have gone now in Edo.
“Labour Party has Olu Akpata from Edo South and APC has Monday Okpebholo from Edo Central, a Senator from Edo Central. Now, I am from Edo North. It shows that the three Senatorial districts now have candidates.
“And this comes to the point I have been saying that Edo state, we have not met or we are to agree that there is zoning. And if we are meant to have a convention to say we now have zoning formula, when it leaves here, it goes here. By now, nobody will be contesting in the three senatorial districts.
“All political parties will know the next elections that are coming, it is this senatorial district we will be looking at for our candidates.
“But because we have not actually met as a people and there is no convention or any agreement to say there is zoning, everybody is eligible to vote. And that is where parties now look at the best of their own, those that can win elections, to vote them forward as their aspirants.
“Labour Party has voted in Benin now. If not that, APC primaries was rescheduled, that was adjudged inconclusive, already, their candidate was also coming from Edo South senatorial district that presently has the governor of Edo State. So what is key is competence now in Edo and I think those that are clamouring for zoning, I am with them in terms of zoning so that everybody will have a fair share. But we must agree. I am not against zoning.
Comments:
Leave a Reply