By Adesina Soyooye
The crisis rocking the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Edo State Chapter, boiled over on Friday, March 11, 2022, when the no-nonsense-taking Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, waded in.
Speaking at a commissioning ceremony in Rivers State, Wike taunted the Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, for daring to threaten the PDP.
Shaibu had, while speaking on a National Television, threatened the PDP. “There is an alternative to the Party”, he said.
But an evidently shocked Wike took Shaibu on for his audacity, and taunted him; ” Look at a Deputy Governor wearing khaki. Then, he asked: “Who is his father?”
Querying Shaibu’s new found audacity, Wike told the story of how Shaibu knelt down, begging the PDP to accommodate them in the Party, only for Shaibu to now have the guts to threaten the Party, talking about alternative.
Shaibu and his boss, Governor Godwin Obaseki, had been denied a second term ticket by the All Progressives Congress, APC, then, under the Chairmanship of Adams Oshiomhole, a former Governor of Edo State. That action pushed Obaseki and Shaibu out of APC, and to the PDP. But it, also, marked the end of Oshiomhole’s Chairmanship of the APC. He was sacked, unceremoniously, by President Muhammadu Buhari for that and other sundry issues.
The first place Obaseki and Shaibu ran to, as soon as they were denied the ticket, was Government House, Porthacourt, Rivers State, to see Wike. The PDP not only accommodated them, but went overboard to give them the ticket which earned them a second term in office.
Remembering how both men ran helter-skelter begging to be accommodated by the PDP, and the tension the Party struggled to douse among its other aspirants so as to accommodate both men, Wike couldn’t understand where Shaibu was coming from. He couldn’t understand what gave a Deputy Governor the guts to threaten a National Party. And Wike threatened that Shaibu will face serious disciplinary action.
To see to that, the Governor said he has petitioned the National Chairman of the PDP against Shaibu, insisting that Shaibu’s utterances were unprecedented.
Wike: “He (Shaibu) is threatening the Party that there is an alternative to the PDP. This is the same Deputy Governor that knelt down to beg for us to give them the umbrella. Today, he has the effrontery to threaten the PDP. What a shame!
“These were the same people when they were denied the ticket by ordinary APC, ran to PDP to beg for umbrella. A Deputy Governor is wearing khaki.
“When they were denied ticket under the APC, they were running helter-skelter begging everybody to give them the umbrella. We went and ensured that they won that election.
“Today, that Deputy Governor will be ranting, A Deputy Governor! A Deputy Governor will come on the television to tell the PDP that there is alternative.
“I have written to the National Chairman of the Party. If they don’t constitute a Disciplinary Committee against the Deputy Governor, I will invoke the sections of the Party and ensure they discipline the Deputy Governor.
“He lost his election during the election. It is unfortunate!
“I have never seen a Deputy Governor, come out of the Television to threaten the Party. Who is his father?
“Now that he has started the trouble, let him wait. We will make sure he never rests.
“How can you come and threaten a whole Party when we are there as Governors? It won’t work. And it will never work.”
A couple of months ago, there were speculations that Deputy Governor Shaibu was, allegedly, having some problems with Governor Obaseki over appointments, and could be headed back to the APC. But they remained what they were – mere speculations.
