In reaction, Shaibu claimed that what PDP tagged as a primary election on February 22, 2024, was nothing but a tea party with no force of law.
By Jeffrey Agbo
Former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Phillip Shaibu, on Thursday said the judgment of a Federal High Court in Abuja on the governorship primary in Edo State has vindicated him.
Justice Inyang Ekwo, in his judgment, held that the PDP’s primary conducted on February 22 failed to comply with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022; the guidelines for the conduct of the poll and the party’s constitution.
Justice Ekwo, who said that the Exhibit 1 tendered by the party was bereft of evidence, held that the plaintiffs, through the exhibits tendered, were able to establish their case against the defendants.
The judge said that from the exhibit presented by the PDP, he found that the returning officers who prepared the result sheets only sat down in a place to manufacture the outcome of the poll.
He said the exclusion of the 381 delegates, including the plaintiffs, were against the provisions of the law.
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In reaction, Shaibu claimed that what PDP tagged as a primary election on February 22, 2024, was nothing but a tea party with no force of law.
He said he had consistently and persistently cried out that the PDP killed internal democracy with the way the election was conducted at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin.
The former deputy governor, who fell out with Governor Godwin Obaseki over his ambition, maintained that those who voted for him at his parallel primary election were the authentic delegates lawfully chosen by the people to nominate the governorship candidate for PDP.
On the move by the All Progressives Congress (APC) for him to defect to the party, Shaibu claimed that there was nothing wrong as long as democracy remains a game for the vast majority of people.
“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,” he said.
