Edo Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu has vowed to defeat former National Chairman of the All Progressive Congress (APC) Comrade Adams Oshiomhole even in his ward come September 19.
Shaibu said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Benin on Sunday.
He said this won’t be because he was “one superstar” but because he was connected with the people.
He noted he does not do money politics or uses money for election or bribe people for election, but does “organic” politics, which is building relationship with people.
He also said that he believed in being the messenger of the people, carrying the dividend of democracy to the people.
He vowed not only would he and the PDP defeat the former National Chairman in his ward, he would also win the entire six local government areas in Edo North Senatorial District.
He said that he will win the district with a very wide margin.
According to him: “Edo North Senatorial District will be the easiest to win, because the political structure of the place is in our hands.”
He also disclosed he introduced the former National Chairman of the APC to politics and organised his first ever political meeting that brought him in.
“I introduced Comrade Oshiomhole to politics. I organised his first ever political meeting that brought him in.
“I was in politics before he, I won my election in 2003, without going to court.
“But he came through the court, and I was already a member of the Edo House of Assembly 18 months before he became a governor.”
Shaibu, who is the deputy governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for the Edo governorship election, also said that his loyalty to the PDP candidate, Gov. Godwin Obaseki, remained unshaken.
He noted this was because as the deputy governor, his interest was the development of the state.
He added the governor was already developing the state in many ways and he would follow and stand with him to the last.
He stressed he would continue to fight on the side of any government that would make poverty a history in the state.
He noted that he was not just loyal to the governor but to a vision that the governor, himself and even the former governor had shared.
He noted that Oshiomhole started the vision, which was the vision for development, moving the state forward as well as turning it from a civil service state to an industrial state and a business hub of the nation.
He disclosed that although the immediate past governor of the state was pushed forward to be the leader of that vision, regrettably, he was the only one who had pulled out of that shared vision.
