BREAKING: Ighodalo emerges winner of parallel Edo PDP gov primary

• Ighodalo defeated about nine other candidates including the Deputy Governor of the state in the election

A businessman, Asue Ighodalo, has been declared the winner of the Peoples Democratic Party governorship primary election, which took place in Benin City in Edo State on Thursday.

Ighodalo defeated about nine other candidates including the Deputy Governor of the state in the election.

He polled a total vote of 577 votes to become the candidate of the APC in the September 21 governorship election in the state.

The Chairman of the Edo PDP Primary Electoral Committee and Governor Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State declared him as the winner of the exercise.

In another development, another faction of the Edo State Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Thursday, held a parallel congress, which produced the deputy governor of the state, Rt. Hon Philip Shaibu, as the party’s governorship candidate for the September 21 poll in the State.

While some delegates were being accredited to proceed to the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium venue of another primary election, another set of delegates met at a facility on Commercial Avenue in Benin City where they announced Shaibu as the elected candidate of the PDP.

They claimed that they went to the same accreditation venue but were chased away by security agents. They also alleged that the list of delegates published by the national leadership of the party was not the authentic one used for accreditation, alleging that they saw names of people from Bayelsa State and names of people who are members of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) on the list being used.

Declaring Shaibu winner of the parallel primary election, Bartholomew Moses said “during the counting of this primary election, Philip Shaibu has a score of 301 votes and, therefore, we hereby declare Philip Shaibu as the authentic elected candidate for this election in the PDP.”