Kazeem Owoseni
The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has officially declared to run for the 2024 governorship election in the state.
Shaibu in a pre-recorded speech aired on Monday, said he would run for the number one office in the state, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party.
The Deputy Governor who has been the number two citizen of the state since 2016 however launched his campaign office in Benin City, the state capital, shortly after his official declaration at an event crowded with party supporters in branded accoutrements.
He said: “After all the consultation we have made, we needed to now make the answer to our consultation known to our people. And the answer is clear: they have asked me to run.”
However, Shaibu who is from Edo North Senatorial District of the state, said he has put his life on the line for the development and growth of the state, noting that he was determined to make the South-South state, great again.
The 53-year-old politician who has been having a running battle with his principal, Governor Godwin Obaseki, over his political ambition, said though he was persecuted, he was not crushed.
Meanwhile, both Obaseki and Shaibu were once allies of former Governor Adams Oshiomhole, before the political association among them plunged into crisis towards the 2020 governorship election in the state, when the ex-labour leader was accused of ‘godfatherism’ which he denied.
While Oshiomhole presented Osagie Ize-Iyamu as a candidate to contest under the platform of the All Progressives Congress, Obaseki and Shaibu who contested under the platform of the PDP defeated him despite that the APC candidate was backed by the former governor and other APC heavyweights, including the now President Bola Tinubu, and ex-President Muhammadu Buhari.
