The acting national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Ambassador Umar Damagum, has given assurance that the party will go into the Edo State 2024 governorship election as one family while dismissing insinuations that there is a rift between Governor Godwin Obaseki and his deputy Philip Shaibu. Damagum stated this at the stakeholders’ meeting of the National Working Committee (NWC) with the Edo State chapter of the party.
There has been no love lost between Obaseki and Shaibu over the latter’s ambition to succeed Obaseki as the next governor of Edo State. There are reports that Obaseki has ‘anointed’ Lagos-based lawyer Asue Ighodalo to succeed him at the Dennis Osadebey House in 2024.
However, Damagum, while addressing the press, said the ‘gladiators’ eyeing the governorship seat have decided to work together in the interest of the party as one united house.
“We have agreed to work together as one family, and we will go further to break the meeting into smaller committees so that, at the end of the day, we will come up with a better solution. But in conclusion, Edo is now one family. We are talking about elections here, and you are talking about issues between the governor and his deputy. There was no issue.”
Obaseki, in his submission, said he does not have any issues with Shaibu over his aspiration. He said that as an indigene of Edo State, Shaibu has the constitutional right to contest, which nobody can deny. He added that he would support whoever emerges as the party’s candidate at the polls.
“There is absolutely no issue between me and my deputy, and he is here. He wants to contest, and we are not asking him to drop his ambition. He is a free-born citizen of Edo State, and he can contest. I will support whoever the party supports.”
Ighodalo, while expressing optimism that the PDP will win the election, called for unity among all stakeholders in the state.
“We had a very fruitful family meeting, a fantastic family meeting. It is for unity and for the people to continue to live in love. The PDP is set to win the next election in the state by the grace of God Almighty. The leadership of the party all spoke well, and they spoke in line with unity for the party. We are all very happy to come out of that meeting. We want continuous great governance for our state, continuous good governance, and a unified and strong party in the state.”
Speaking on his chances of getting the ticket to the party, he said, “That is in God Almighty’s hands. What we are most concerned about now is the unity of the party. I don’t think that anybody is directly thinking about that issue now. It is fundamental that the party stay united and that the party stay strong. That is what we are all focusing on; that is what everybody attending the meeting is focusing on.”
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