Obaseki asks Shaibu to drop his desire to become governor

The governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, has agreed to make amends with his deputy, Philip Shaibu, but only if Shaibu abandons his plans to run for office in the state’s September 2024 general election.

According to information obtained  Obaseki has threatened to exclude Shaibu from participating in any official proceedings, including state Executive Council meetings, unless he officially declares his intentions.

The crux of their conflict is Shaibu’s ambition.

Shaibu is from Edo North, while the governor is from the Edo South senatorial area.

Obaseki is working with Edo Central attorney Asue Ighodalo to promote equity, fairness, and justice.

Ighodalo is the head of the state government’s annual investment campaign, Alaghodaro, which is overseen by the Board of Trustees.

But Shaibu has insisted that he will partake in the governor’s race.

Midway through September, the state government relocated Shaibu’s office to Benin City’s Government Reservation Area (GRA) and converted his Government House Office into the summit’s secretariat.

Shaibu apologised to his principal last Thursday for their political disagreement the day before, which led to Obaseki holding the state’s weekly executive council retreat in Lagos without Shaibu.

Obaseki allegedly sent the deputy governor to Abuja as his representative in order to remove him from the gathering or retreat.

Newly appointed Edo commissioners and other top government officials attended a two-day retreat dubbed “Exco Retreat with Mr. Governor.”

The retreat was a yearly routine for strategic meetings to brainstorm on the government’s programmes and define a plan for the following year, according to an Obaseki loyalist who spoke on the record while requesting anonymity.

It was said that Obaseki threatened Shaibu’s security vote and participation in government activities at the retreat if Shaibu dared to vote in the Peoples Democratic Party governorship primary.

According to a source, “Obaseki secretly sent Shaibu to represent him in two events in Abuja, while he (the governor of Edo) went to a Lagos resort with his commissioners and the heads of the state’s Ministries, Departments, and Agencies (MDAs) to hold the state’s weekly exco meeting, without giving Shaibu any prior notice of either the change of exco meeting’s day or venue.”

“Obaseki’s choice to send his deputy on a merry-go-round to Abuja is related to the governor of Edo’s choice to make sure that his deputy could not credibly claim that he was purposefully kept from the Lagos exco meeting while he was also on state business.

“Shaibu was purposefully kept in the dark of any decision to convene the executive committee meeting on Monday rather than the customary Wednesday or that it would be transported to Lagos.

“To make sure that even if he managed to return to Benin City from his Abuja assignments before the end of the conference, he would not be able to attend, the meeting was kept top secret and purposefully guarded from the constable.

“Edo governor does not want his deputy to attend the Lagos exco meeting and retreat until he can fulfil all of the requirements set forth for reconciliation, one of which is that he must publicly renounce his desire to run for governor so that Obaseki can solidify his decision to name Asue Ighodalo as his successor.

Chris Nehikhare, the Edo commissioner for communication and orientation, Crusoe Osagie, Obaseki’s special adviser on media projects, Andrew Okungbowa, the newly appointed Edo governor’s chief press secretary, and Ebomhiana Musa, the governor of Shaibu, all declined to comment on the “sensitive” issues.