The deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has disclosed why he and his supporters, as well as those of his boss, Governor Godwin Obaseki, are considering leaving the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) two years after joining the party.
Shaibu said that the supporters who followed Obaseki to PDP during his clash with his former boss, Adams Oshiomhole, do not feel at home in the party.
He said that after Obaseki left the ruling All Progressives Congress to join PDP, the ruling party had not integrated his supporters and other APC members who joined him to the new party in 2019.
“We have not been accepted into PDP and we are not telling the governor to leave now or we leave.
“We are in PDP now and we expect to be integrated. When I say ‘we’, I mean not only Philip Shaibu, but also Anselm Ojezua (former Edo APC chairman) and the state working committee, the ward chairmen and the executives, the leaders of APC then, and all the well-wishers who left APC because of Obaseki.
“We have been meeting and we have said we need to be integrated. Anselm Ojezua resigned his membership as chairman of the state; the ward chairmen resigned; other executives resigned to join PDP.
“As I speak, they have not been integrated and we are talking about harmonisation; they have refused to harmonise. For some of us, that means we are not welcome in PDP.
“We are not saying remove everyone and accept us. We are saying make room for Anselm Ojezua and make room for others. Just like we have done in the government appointment — we have made space for the old PDP that we met. They are commissioners,” Shaibu said during an interview on Channels Television on Monday.
The deputy governor also said that although the governor’s supporters are unhappy, they have no intention of returning to APC.
“For me, Philip Shaibu, I have no plans to leave. For Philip Shaibu, his followers, and the followers of Obaseki who left APC for PDP, they plan to leave PDP but to where? For now, I don’t know,” he said.
“Why? Because we feel we are not accepted in PDP and that is why we are thinking that it is time to just close the chapter and leave.
“We left APC because of the oppression by APC national chairman on the governor. And for some of us who hated oppression, we decided to abandon our relationship with the godfather then and follow the governor to PDP.”
On the cause of the party’s internal crisis, Shaibu said, “We need the national to come and resolve these issues and they have been shifting the goalpost from one end to another.
“The problem is from the national. I will not want to blame it on the national chairman but I will also blame him because the issues are before him. Since he took over leadership, he has not seen it fit to call for a meeting to resolve the Edo crisis.”
