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.
Shaibu said on Saturday that the impeachment move was leaked to him by his team.
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 had been subjected to all manner of degrading treatment by the governor, adding that he was 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.”
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