The Edo State deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, at about 11:10 on Saturday cast his vote at the Ward 11, polling unit 5 of Etsako West local government.
Mr Shaibu is seekig re-election as deputy governor of the state under the umbrella of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).
After casting his vote, he expressed optimism of winning re-election.
“So far, in my unit, things are going well, the security agents are on top of the situation,” he told reporters.
“If what I’m seeing here is what that is happening all over the state, it means INEC has fulfilled its promise to deliver free, credible and safe election.
“If you look round, you will see that movement is highly restricted,” he noted, adding that he won’t predict the outcome of the entire exercise ”since the time is young”.
Meanwhile, earlier, an altercation ensued between his loyalists and those of the All Progressives Congress.
PREMIUM TIMES observed a cluster of the loyalists raising their voices and threatening each other in their local dialect, Etsako, a variant of languages spoken by the Afemai people.
“If you try that thing here, we will kill ourselves,” one of the loyalists was heard saying. By “thing,” he meant trying to woo his party’s potential voters to the other side.
”We must deliver this unit,” this time, one of PDP’s loyalists replied.
Mr Shaibu was a member of the House of Representatives during the 2016 election in Edo State when he was picked by the then chairman of the APC, Adams Oshiomhole.
Mr Oshiomhole, also a former governor of the state, has been dubbed Mr Shuaibu’s political godfather until their relationship turned sour.
In the course of their rivalry, Mr Shaibu has also claimed that he introduced Mr Oshiomhole to politics and that he organised the latter’s first-ever meeting that brought Mr Oshiomhole to political limelight.
Both men hail from the same senatorial district, Edo North, and local government area, Etsako West.
Mr Shaibu at a time said, “Edo North Senatorial District will be the easiest to win because the political structure of the place is in our hands.”
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