REVEALED. Why Obaseki Wants Shaibu Out!

             Shaibu, Obaseki when the going was good

Hendrix Oliomogbe

Facts as to why Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki wants his deputy, Comrade Phillip Shaibu impeached emerged weekend in Benin City.

A source close to Comrade Shaibu disclosed that the amity between the governor and his deputy turned to enmity following the latter insistence on contesting the primaries of the People's Democratic Party (PDP) in next year's governorship election in Edo State.

The duo who were originally elected on the ticket of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2016 however fell out with their benefactor, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, the immediate past governor of the state over sundry issues and made a move to the PDP during the run up to the 2020 governorship election.

With the falling out, as a result of his decision to gun for the governorship ticket of the main opposition party, Comrade Shaibu is presently at a Federal High Court in Abuja in a desperate attempt to obtain a restraining order and preempt the move to impeach him.

The 24 member House of Assembly which has Mr. Blessing Agbebaku (Owan West) as speaker is dominated by the PDP with 15 lawmakers while the APC has eight members and Labour Party one. 16 lawmakers are needed for a successful impeachment.

In a motion of notice brought before an Abuja Federal High Court on Thursday in suit No. FHC/ABJ/ CS/1027/2023, titled "Affidavit of Urgency", Shaibu sought an order of interlocutory injunction to stop the respondents or their agents from harassing, intimidating, embarrassing or preventing him from carrying out the functions of his office as deputy governor of the Heartbeat of the Nation state, including attending State Executive Council meetings and other functions pending the determination of the substantive suit.

The defendants are the Inspector General of Police (IGP), State Security Service (SSS), Governor Obaseki, Agbebaku and the Chief Judge of Edo State, Justice Daniel Okungbowa who are listed as first to fifth respectfully.

The source who would not want his name in print disclosed that Governor Obaseki had before now unequivocally told an adamant Comrade Shaibu to drop his governorship ambition but to no avail.

Continuing, the source disclosed that the governor told his deputy at a meeting that the two of them came together in 2016 and will both go in 2024 but an adamant Comrade Shaibu insisted that in line with his democratic right, he'll run in next year's governorship primary of the PDP.

Determined to whittle the deputy governor's powers down and cut him to size, Governor Obaseki refused to consider Comrade Shaibu's nominees for commissioners in his home base of Etsako West, Etsako East and Etsako Central Local Government Areas in Edo North Senatorial district during the recent reconstitution of the state executive council.

Besides, the source explained that as part of strategy to put the deputy governor, who is currently on holiday in the United States of America after attending the Afemai World Congress in Newark, New Jersey, "where he rightly belongs", the supervision of the collection of revenue from the 18 local government areas was recently taken from his office to that of the governor.

He added: "The governor told his deputy to drop his governorship ambition but Comrade Shaibu refused. As a way of de-marketing him, the governor and his kitchen cabinet resolved to put him on the defensive by attempting to impeach him. The calculation is that even if the exercise fails, he will be distracted and so weakened that he will not be marketable. He'll end up spending precious time, energy and resources, which he would have used to mobilize for his governorship aspiration, to stave off the impeachment."

In the meantime, the embattled deputy governor Friday got a reprieve as the trial judge, Justice Ahmed Mohammed issued a temporary order stopping the move by the governor to impeach him.