The Deputy Governor of Edo State Philip Shaibu, has raised the alarm over a fresh plot to impeach him following his emergence as a factional candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the governorship election scheduled for September 21.
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Shaibu, who disclosed this during a media parley with journalists from Edo State in Abuja yesterday, said the impeachment move was revealed to him by his team.
On his part, the flag bearer of the All Progressives Congress in the forthcoming election, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has assured that his candidacy will deliver victory to the party when the election is held in September.
He also extended an olive branch to Senator Adams Oshiomhole, Dennis Idahosa and other party members who were opposed to his candidacy during the election, asking them to work with him for the success of the party in the governorship election.
Shaibu, who has had a running battle with his boss, Governor Godwin Obaseki, vowed to carry on with his preparations even if doing so would cause his impeachment by the state House of Assembly.
The returning officer in the PDP governorship primary and Governor of Zamfara State, Dauda Lawal, On Thursday 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.”
Shaibu, however, regarded himself as the authentic candidate, describing the primary election that produced Ighodalo, who is backed by Governor Obaseki, as nothing short of a social party attended by “people who wore aso ebi (ceremonial uniform) from all over the place.”
Shaibu, who defected to the PDP from the All Progressives Congress (APC) alongside Obaseki, in 2020, said his office has been subjected to all manner of degrading treatment by the governor, adding 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 fighting for my rights as in the constitution that triggers impeachment, so be it, because fighting for my rights and saying I must contest the election is my constitutional rights and cannot be taken by anybody.
“So if constitutional right is why they will now trigger impeachment, the courts are there; they will interpret 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 clear.
“If people can stand bullets to say this is who we want, then the party should follow that direction,” he added.
The deputy governor 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 said.
Shaibu also said he was 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 Ighodalo joins 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 answered in the affirmative 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 said.
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