The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has insisted that he is the authentic governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in the State.
He charged the PDP to allow him to become the party’s flag bearer or the party would have no candidate in the forthcoming election.
Shaibu and Asue Ighodalo both emerged as winners of the parallel PDP primary elections held in Benin City, the capital of Edo State.
He was declared winner with 300 votes while Ighodalo, in another primary that was held at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium, was declared candidate with 577 votes.
The governorship primary committee, led by the Zamfara State Governor Dauda Lawal, said a total of 594 delegates were elected to participate in the primary while 585 delegates were accredited to vote.
Announcing the final votes, Lawal, the Chief Returning Officer for the governorship primary as well as the chairman of the committee primary, said Asue Ighodalo scored 577 votes while his closest rival Philip Shaibu scored one vote.
However, speaking with TVC, the deputy governor said: “I will not want to go into the rules of processes they didn’t follow because very soon these issues will be too glaring and everybody will see where the mistakes are.
“I can tell you that they didn’t follow the rules and by the grace of God the authentic delegates of the party voted for me, they wanted to disenfranchise them but they were determined to fight for the party and protect its legacy, what we call legacy coalition.
“I’m the candidate of the PDP and you can take it to the bank and come September 2024; I will be the flagbearer and governor of Edo State.
“In the coming days, we will be meeting with the party and other stakeholders and they will see that for them to have a candidate in this election, they must allow Shaibu to remain, unless PDP is not interested in having a candidate which I know they want to have a candidate in this election.”
