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Former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu’s open declaration of support for Senator Monday Okpebholo, the All Progressives Congress, APC, candidate for the September 21 governorship election in the state, has pitched the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, against the APC.
DAILY POST reports that Shaibu had, while speaking with newsmen at St. Paul’s Catholic Church Benin City, during the celebration of Father’s Day, declared his support for Okpebholo in the forthcoming governorship election.
Shaibu also described Asue Ighodalo, the candidate of the PDP, as a Lagos-based lawyer and a product of ‘godfatherism’.
He said he would support the governorship candidate of the APC, whom he described as one of the two ‘homeboys’, among the 16 contestants.
According to him, Okpebholo would succeed Obaseki on November 12.
The impeached deputy governor opined that the other ‘homeboy’ is the governorship candidate of the Labour Party, LP, Olumide Akpata, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA).
He noted that the two ‘homeboys’ possessed the qualities to move Edo forward, devoid of deceit or propaganda.
However, annoyed by Shaibu’s declaration of support for the opposition party’s candidate, the PDP has called for his immediate resignation from the party.
Rev Olu Martins, the Director General Media and Publicity Asue/Ogie Campaign Management Council, who made the call, said the former deputy governor should resign honorably from the PDP.
Martins insisted that Governor Godwin Obaseki was not a godfather or a dictator, as alleged by Shaibu.
He urged Shaibu to always think and speak as a comrade, particularly being a former President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).
He opined that Shaibu’s “homeboy” tag on the APC candidate does not hold water, noting that “because the (PDP) candidate didn’t grow up in Edo, doesn’t make him a stranger in his own state”.
“I thought Shaibu will tell us that the candidate he wants to support has the capacity, intelligence and knack for excellence, which is the hallmark of a great leader.
“The honourable thing he should have done is to resign from the PDP like others and support the APC candidate. His argument is that of weak people,” he stated.
Reacting to PDP’s call for the former deputy to resign from the party, Comrade Orobosa Omo-Ojo, Publicity Director, Senator Monday Okpebholo Governorship Campaign Council, said the APC welcomed Shaibu’s support for the party’s governorship flagbearer.
Omo-Ojo, who described the PDP’s statement as irritating and baseless, urged the PDP to first suspend Governor Godwin Obaseki and the party’s running mate, Osarodion Ogie, for allegedly spending the state’s resources to build a structure for the Labour Party in the state.
According to him, rather than asking Shaibu to resign, PDP should suspend their outgoing governor, Obaseki, for leading them to political obscurity in Edo State.
“Comrade Philip Shaibu is an Iroko, a true definition of homeboy and a political giant in the state, like the APC candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo.
“APC wishes to give free advice to the dead PDP that it should concentrate energy on how to tell Edo people what new thing Asue Ighodalo and his running mate intend to bring on board after both have served the state for 28 years without any major development, especially with the terrible scorecard of Governor Obaseki that has set back the fortunes of our dear state.
“The only sane thing left for PDP is to join Obaseki and Ighodalo on a pleading tour of the state and beg for forgiveness, especially after last week’s confession by the state government that question papers for Basic Examination in the state were leaked to public school teachers in the state, which eventually ended up with maize sellers,” he said.
He alleged that Obaseki and Ogie had, as part of a plan to produce stooges, funded the Labour Party’s primary before and during the 2023 general election.
While stating that PDP was yet to understand the hurricane that has happened in its fold, he noted that everyone with political relevance have left the party.
He opined that those still with the party are only waiting as undertakers to bury it.
He equally demanded that the State Government should immediately set up an independent panel of enquiry to investigate the circumstances that led to the series of examination question leakages that have trailed the “so-called” Edo Best Education Programme since 2020.
