“I’ve been vindicated” – Ex-Edo deputy gov reacts to court ruling on PDP primary election

Phillip Shaibu, the immediate past Deputy Governor of Edo, has declared that he feels vindicated by the recent Federal High Court judgment which invalidated the governorship primary election in the state.

Reacting to the judgment delivered by Justice Inyang Edem Ekwo on Thursday, Shaibu asserted that the supposed PDP primary election held on February 22, 2024, was nothing more than a “tea party” with no legal standing.

Shaibu has long contended that the PDP undermined internal democracy through the fraudulent conduct of its primary election at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin.

He stated that the delegates who supported him at his parallel primary election were the legitimate representatives chosen by the people to nominate the PDP’s governorship candidate.

Addressing the speculation of his potential defection to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Shaibu indicated that there is no issue with such a move, as democracy is fundamentally about serving the majority.

“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 the rigging of the election,” Shaibu said.

The court ruling by Justice Ekwo invalidated the February 22 PDP primary election because, according to the judgement, 378 delegates, who were supposed to participate, were unlawfully excluded.