As preparation for the Edo governorship election reaches the homestretch, the State chapter of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has lambasted ex-deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, for describing the party’s governorship candidate, Asue Ighodalo, as an outsider.
The PDP said it was contradictory for Shaibu to remain in the PDP and be demarketing the party’s governorship candidate, urging him to rather resign his membership.
Shaibu, a PDP member, declared on Sunday that he would be supporting the candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Senator Monday Okpebholo, in the September 21 governorship election in the state.
He said while Okpebholo was a homeboy, who understood the challenges in the state, the PDP candidate, Ighodalo, was an outsider and a product of godfatherism.
“We don’t want an outsider. We have experimented with an outsider and it is not working, so this time, we want a homeboy. We have only two homeboys in the major political parties; one is in the Labour Party and one is in the All Progressives Congress.
“I chose to follow the homeboy in the APC. The man they are parading in the PDP is an outsider and we have also agreed that no more godfatherism in Edo. The man the PDP is parading is the godson of Obaseki and there is no way a godson can be governor of Edo State again,” Shaibu had said.
But reacting on Monday, the Deputy Director General of the media arm of the Edo PDP Governorship Campaign Council, Rev. Olu Martin, described Shaibu’s reason for supporting the APC candidate as baseless.
“Because the candidate didn’t grow up in Edo, doesn’t make him a stranger in his own state.
“I thought Shaibu would tell us that the candidate he wants to support has the capacity, intelligent, knack for excellence and smartness, which are the hallmarks of a great leader,” Martin said in a voice note sent to journalists on Monday.
Martin added that it was contradictory for Shaibu to remain in the PDP and be working against the candidate of the party.
“The honourable thing he should have done is to resign from the PDP like others and support the APC candidate. His argument is that of weak people,” he said.
Shaibu contested but lost the PDP governorship ticket to Ighodalo, who has the backing of Governor Godwin Obaseki.