By DADA AYOKHAI
Braving the odds and showing he has what it takes in terms of grit and gutsiness to follow his heart to the end, Edo State deputy governor, Hon. Philip Shaibu made good his plans to contest the Edo 2024 guber race .
At the formal declaration of his guber ambition, held at a Pastoral Center along the popular Airport Road in Benin and owned by the Catholic Church, Hon. Shaibu said his ambition is divine and is meant to reset Edo State .
The PDP primary produces the party’s guber candidate is slated for February next year
The Shaibu declaration took place early in the morning, 7 am to be precise, in apparent defiance of attempts by some Obaseki loyalists to nip the declaration in the bud.
Attempts to ensure the declaration never held by the Obaseki loyalists forced a last-minute change of venue.
Conspicuously absent at the declaration were Edo State PDP chieftains across the three senatorial districts of the state and the state government officials.
Even more worrisome is the fact that top Edo North PDP bigwigs were missing at the event
Borderline News 24 observed that the crowd at the venue was scanty and portrayed an ominous sign for the vaunting political ambition of Hon. Shaibu
There was no official reasons for the absence of the top PDP hierarchy in the state, including his political base, the Edo North
Their absence rankled political feathers in the state thereby fuelling speculations that the tides may have turned against Hon. Shaibu and may also have stayed away so as not to incur the wrath of Gov. Obaseki who is bent on making sure his deputy became a “political orphan overnight”.
Some of the observers at the lack-luster event were shocked at how the embattled deputy governor was denied party support
However, a defiant Shaibu reeled out his manifesto for the state and also declared emphatically that nothing can stop an idea whose time has come,.
In addition, he said the state needs a complete “homeboy, not a total stranger” to right the wrongs and also ensure the even distribution of development across the nooks and crannies of the state.
It remains to be seen how Hon. Shaibu intends to pull the rug from under the feet of his boss at the PDP primary by securing the vital number of delegates needed to grab the party’s governorship ticket
