“Shaibu was wrongly advised to succeed Obaseki” — PDP

Usman Okai Austin, the leader of the Peoples Democratic Party, National Youth Frontier, said that the former Edo State deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, has negatively impacted his political future.

According to Okai who was reacting to the impeachment of the former deputy governor by the Edo State House of Assembly, Shaibu was wrongfully advised.

He stated that Shaibu was wrongly advised or it’s a case of one trying to overrate himself.

He said, “The way he and Obaseki came, he should have been allowed to end his tenure successfully with the name of deputy governor.

“The way he went about it was wrong, there is an arrangement of power rotation in Edo State which he knows, Shaibu can’t say he’s ignorant of this; he was a former state assembly member, former House of Representatives member, and now former Deputy governor.

“He’s aware that from Edo North to Edo South, their power links back to Edo Central. Edo North where he (Shaibu) hails from produced a governor for eight years which was Oshiomhole, then power went to Edo South where Obaseki hails from and it’s now going back to Edo Central.

“Meanwhile, Shaibu is agitating that the rotational policy in Edo State should be abolished to favour him.

“Edo North had eight years as governor and now they have produced a deputy governor which puts them at an advantage against other regions.

“Now, he became a deputy governor from the same place; what was expected of Shaibu was for him to have complied with the zoning arrangement that existed in Edo State by ensuring that somebody from Edo Central emerges, but having gone against that to buy form, is a problem.

“You and I know that every incumbent takes the issue of their successor more seriously than their own second term.

“APC is no longer interested in Shaibu, Oshiomhole told him to go and learn reality before talking of contesting election.

“He is no longer wanted in APC, he’s suspended in his own party, and the Labour Party is filled up in Edo State.

“He should approach the court so that they can clear him as a former Deputy governor.

“Now that he has been impeached, he does not enjoy any benefits as a former Deputy governor.

“He has to go and fight that battle now, either he was rightly or wrongly impeached but coming back to be a deputy governor may be difficult, so his political future has been mortgaged, he has messed it up. Shaibu was wrongly advised.”