By John Ogunsemore
Former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu has reacted to Thursday’s court judgement that voided the primary election that produced Asue Ighodalo as gubernatorial candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state.
Daily Sun earlier reported that Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Federal High Court in Abuja voided the February 22, 2024, primary election on the ground that 378 delegates who were supposed to vote at the primary were unlawfully excluded by the PDP.
Shaibu said the judgement confirmed what he said all along that the so-called primary election was nothing more than a tea party.
He insisted that the primary conducted at the Samuel Ogbemudia stadium, Benin was a show of shame in which the PDP killed internal democracy.
The ex-deputy governor insisted that the delegates who voted for him at a parallel primary election were the authentic delegates lawfully chosen by the people to nominate the PDP governorship candidate.
He also said he was not against rumoured moves by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to woo him to its fold, noting that “when you see a political party wooing people to its group, that party wants to win but when you see a party chasing people away as in the case of the PDP, that party is planning nothing but rigging of election’’.
Meanwhile, the Tony Aziegbemi-led Edo state chapter of PDP maintained that insisted that Ighodalo remains its candidate ahead of the September 21 governorship in the state.
In a statement, Edo PDP urged the party faithful to remain calm, arguing that the court judgement did not affect Ighodalo’s candidature.
