•No, you are deviating from principles you thought us, says deputy governor
Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City
The crisis in the All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State branch showed no sign of subsiding yesterday as the National Chairman, Mr. Adams Oshiomhole, expressed regrets over what he described as his betrayal by the Deputy Governor of the state, Hon. Philip Shaibu, and other members of the party from his local government area, despite all he had done for them to grow politically.
Shaibu was recently at the centre of altercation between youths of Iyamho and suspected thugs allegedly brought into the community during the convocation of Edo University, Iyamho in Etsako West Local Government Area.
Oshiomhole had accused him of bringing commercial motorcyclists to the venue of the ceremony to embarrass him.
But in a swift reaction, Shaibu said he did not betray Oshiomhole but was only following the path the party chairman taught him politically.
Speaking through his Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Musa Ebomhiana, Shaibu said he merely stood by Oshiomhole’s tenets of “no more godfatherism and let the people lead.”
Addressing the youths, who paid him a solidarity visit in his Iyamho house yesterday, Oshiomhole urged them to continue to embrace peace and not allow themselves to be used to disrupt the peace of the state.
He also urged them to continue to support the government of President Muhammadu Buhari who he said stands for truth and justice.
He said: “There is nothing I have done in life that I didn’t have to fight for but as you can see by the special grace of God, there is no fight that I was forced into that I have not prevailed because I do not go out of my way to look for trouble. I actually do my best to make peace but if it fails, God will give the enablement to stand on our feet and defend the truth.
“The only thing I will say today to anyone who is here, who is an agent of my son, when I talk of my son, I am talking of Philip Shaibu, who now thinks that his own political future requires that he attacks me and import thugs to disgrace me in my village.
“The Hausas have sayings that when people are possessed and they do things like that, just say: ‘God take control.’ Supposing I was dead after 2016 and somebody tells me that my son, Philip, will organise people to attack my house or to attack my village to disrupt the convocation, may be my body will be turning in heaven and I will not believe; but the fact that I am alive to see someone who did not win his own booth because his own people in his own village and his own community of Jattu did not want him because they apparently know him better than me but I stood by him not on false stand and he became deputy governor, will vindicate me. So, if all that transpired now is to use that power to humiliate me, God forbade as you can see.
“Who can fight the battle but God? So, I leave the burden of guilt to them and I will not repay evil with evil. I will stand on the path of peace; I will stand on the path of unity, I will stand on the path of justice because I know that God in heaven will never allow the evil doers prevail.
“I am very happy that God has given me good health and that I can see some people who fought me in 2007 and God gave me victory and from victory I made them commissioners, I gave them jobs; I assisted them whenever they were in need that I am alive to see them because of a small pot of pepper soup singing signatures to say Oshiomhole should not be.
“Some of them called me privately and said they were given contracts sum of about N10 million and they say if I don’t sign, they won’t pay my money and I said okay may the N10 million make you a millionaire; some say they were given jobs and told to abuse me otherwise, they will be sacked. I then asked if it is not God that protects.
“I don’t want to be remembered for using my office to harass anybody. I have left government for three years now but you people are here now on your own. You are not millionaires in your pockets; you are billionaires in your minds.”
No, You Are Deviating from Principles You Thought Us, Says Deputy Gov
But Shaibu denied betraying Oshiomhole, saying he was only following the path the party chairman taught him politically.
Ebomhiana said the deputy governor stood by Oshiomhole’s tenets of “no more godfatherism and let the people lead.”
According to him, as a good son of Oshiomhole’s politics, he is following the path of a good father.
Shaibu stated that Oshiomhole was a respected leader and father he could not have betrayed.
He also denied allegations that the party leaders in Etsako West that signed the vote of no confidence petition against Oshiomhole were threatened to do so.
“The Deputy Governor is a gentleman. He could not have threatened or coerced anybody to sign any letter. Those people that signed the purported document are matured men and women that do not feed from the table of the DG,” Ebomhiana said.
In a separate statement, the Special Adviser to the Edo State Governor on Media and Communication Strategy, Mr. Crusoe Osagie, also stated that Shaibu has not betrayed Oshiomhole in the ongoing challenges facing the ruling APC in Edo State.
Osagie added that what Shaibu is doing in the ongoing face-off is exactly what Oshiomhole taught him through the years, which is to fight for the oppressed and downtrodden in society.
“It is the dream of a father for his son to imbibe his principles and surpass his achievements, and that is what he has been doing. Oshiomhole taught us activism, forthrightness, and standing for what you believe in. He is still our father and we are living by the principles he taught us,” he said.
