From Ndubuisi Orji, Abuja
Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, has threatened to approach the court to determine the authentic candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party ( PDP) in the September 21 governorship poll.
He stated this at the party’s National Secretariat in Abuja, yesterday, where he insisted that he was the authentic candidate.
The deputy governor told journalists that he was at the party secretariat to collect his Certificate of Return as winner of the governorship primary.
Shaibu and Asue Ighodolo had emerged as gubernatorial candidates at two different primaries.
However, the opposition party’s National Working Committee (NWC) on Tuesday issued Ighodalo a Certificate of Return, affirming him the authentic candidate.
Nevertheless, the Edo deputy governor said, “I am here to obey the guidelines to come and receive the certificate of return and I was told that somebody else came here yesterday (Tuesday) and was given the certificate. I think the court will tell us who is the real candidate, but I am here in fulfillment of the electoral guidelines of the PDP to receive my certificate.
“When the party internal mechanism is not followed and it is obvious that the party is not ready to listen, the next line of action obviously will be the judiciary. But I pray we don’t get there and that is why I came here today. Maybe in the coming days, the acting National Chairman and others will adhere to what brought me here today and when they do so, there will not be a need to go to court.
“But if they don’t do what is needful, needful in the sense that I won the primary with the authentic delegates … the certificate should be returned to me, if that is not done, we will not have any choice than to seek interpretation by the court.”
Shaibu added that why the PDP acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum, may be genuine in his calls for reconciliation, the same cannot be said about other parties in the crisis in Edo PDP.
“The acting Chairman may be very honourable and mean what he is saying. But another person talking about reconciliation doesn’t really mean what they are saying. They are intimidating us, harassing us, as I speak they are even threatening to impeach and that is their own way of dealing with people. They suspend, sack people, they make phone calls intimidating people telling people, they will come after you,” he stated.