By Gideon Njoku
The embattled and just impeached Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has a lonely long walk before him. Shaibu, who was impeached by the State’s House of Assembly on Monday, April 8, 2024, is not likely to find any refuge in the All Progressives Congress, APC, a Party he, allegedly, plans to decamp to after his impeachment as Deputy Governor.
Proof: APC Stakeholders in his Local Government Area, Etsako West, has rejected him even before he applied to be admitted. In a communique they issued at the end of an emergency meeting, they decided not to admit Shaibu as aember of the Party.
After they recounted his “litany of sins, they gave him a red card. Incidentally, Shaibu was a member of the APC before he and his now estranged former boss, Godwin Obaseki, dumped the Party for the PDP when Obaseki was denied a ticket for a second term in office as Edo State Governor.
Shaibu’s return to the APC, they said, will destabilise the Party. They described any such attempt to return to the APC as “a calculated plan by Philip Shaibu to bring rancor, disharmony and unprecedented crisis into the All Progressives Congress.”
Following is the full text of the communique.
A Communique Issued By APC Stakeholders In Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, Asking For The Total Rejection Of Hon Philip Shaibu In The APC Fold.
Preamble:
Today, we, the Critical Stakeholders, LGA Executive Members, Wards Executive Members, other leaders and general members of the All Progressives Congress, APC in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo State, met and deliberated on a raging issue, which is the attempt by the impeached former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Hon Philip Shaibu to jump boat and defect to the All Progressives Congress.
Considerations:
This attempt is viewed seriously by the members of the All Progressives Congress as a calculated plan by Philip Shaibu to bring rancor, disharmony and unprecedented crisis into the All Progressives Congress.
It is on records that Hon Philip Shaibu has not won any election since he left APC to pitch tent with the Peoples Democratic Party,PDP. In virtually all the elections conducted by Inec since 2020 when he defected to PDP, he has consistently been defeated even in his polling unit. He therefore does not posses any electoral value that could warrant his admittance into our great party, APC. In other words, Philip Shaibu has become a complete political liability and a highly cancerous politician that must be avoided, in order to prevent him from infesting our party with his ill-fated inordinate, desperate and obnoxious ambition.
It is also worthy to note that a close assessment of Philip Shaibu’s political participation would reveal him as a man that is politically rancorous and he derives joy in initiating, propagating and sustaining unending crisis in any association or political party he belongs ( please refer to his days in NANS, ANPP & APC). Do we need such a person in APC? The answer is definitely NO.
Without doubt, the pains, sorrow and anguish Hon Philip Shaibu inflicted on our Party and the G-14 candidates who contested and won the 2019 General Election to represent their respective constituencies in the Edo State House of Assembly are still very much fresh and unhealed. This is because APC and the direct victims are yet to recover from Shaibu’s inglorious midnight inauguration of the Assembly and all his subsequent evil machinations which have made Edo State a laughing stock on matters relating to state legislature. Hon Philip Shaibu, like an evil merchant, made history as the mastermind of an onslaught that prevented our elected House of Assembly members from being sworn in, thereby denying their respective constituencies any form of representation for a long and full tenure of 4 years. His undemocratic attitude and highly sadistic dispositions have made him a leprous politician that must be avoided at all cost.
However, we are not unaware of his current travails in the hands of his co-voyagers in PDP which has culminated in his impeachment.It is purely the case of the generally accepted saying that “whatever a man sows, that he shall reap”. In fact considering the level of insolence that Philip Shaibu deployed during the 2023 general election campaign, when and where he used countless unprintable terms to disparage and ridicule our Presidential candidate, now the incumbent president, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as well as other APC candidates and his assassination attempt on the APC Deputy State Chairman (now Acting State Chairman), we can only watch and enjoy his dance of shame as he swallows the bitter taste of the meal he prepared.
Our Pleas:
In view of the above, we call on the National leader of our party, APC, His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to listen to the plan of mischief as orchestrated by Hon Philip Shaibu. He has no service to render in APC and there is obviously No Vacancy for him in Edo State Chapter of APC.
Similarly, we call on the National Chairman of our party, APC, His Excellency, Alh. Abdullahi Ganduje to hear our voices and help us to keep the peace we currently enjoy in APC in Edo State. Any attempt to enroll Hon Philip Shaibu into APC is a direct invitation to crisis, fragmentation, disaffection, disenchantment, and disintegration .
Again, we wish to use this protest to appeal to the Leader of APC in Edo State, Distinguished Senator Adams Oshiomhole not to allow Hon Philip Shaibu to be admitted into the fold of the All Progressives Congress in Edo State. We are aware that Philip Shaibu still consistently insinuate that Senator Adams Oshiomhole is his father, but we appeal to our leader not to be swayed by Philip Shaibu’s deceits, for behind his word, there lies his venom and like the biblical Satan, he should not be allowed into APC because his mission is only to kill, to steal and to destroy.
We also appeal to the Acting Chairman of APC in Edo State, Emperor Jarrett Tenebe to help APC keep and consolidate the current peace in the party and ensure that no enemy of the party and Edo people like Hon Philip Shaibu whose ability to always cause crisis as well as fragment any party he belongs, is allowed access to enlist into APC.
Finally, we use this opportunity to advise Hon Philip to desist from making attempts to be readmitted to APC. We are ready to resist him with all legitimate means available to us, to ensure that we do not admit him into our party in Etsako West Local Government Area chapter.There is neither vacancy for him in his ward (Ward 11) nor Etsako West. He should rather concentrate on his membership of PDP orv look elsewhere among the several other political parties if he must defect to another party.
Signed:
This message is endorsed by the 12 ward Chairmen of APC in Etsako West Local Government Area.
