REINSTATED Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shuaibu has defected from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the All Progressives Congress (APC).
He announced his defection during the APC Edo State inauguration of the National Working Committee of the Edo governorship election meeting held today (Saturday, 20 July 2024.
Shuaibu’s defection was accompanied by members of the PDP legacy coalition who were in his company.
During the meeting, Shaibu, 54, declared his intention to defect to APC and he was later received into the party by the National Organising Secretary.
This comes after Shaibu alleged on Friday, July 19, that his principal, Godwin Obaseki, denied him entry into the state.
Shaibu said this during an interview on Channels Television’s Politics Today, two days after the Federal High Court in Abuja ordered his reinstatement as deputy governor.
“Yesterday, I got intel that the governor has told his men that they must not allow me into town. I am a free-born of Edo State, nobody can stop me from entering Edo State,” Shaibu said.
“The Constitution does not allow anybody to bar me from entering Edo State, not even when I am a deputy governor. Even if I am an ordinary citizen, I should have a right. I should have freedom.”
Shaibu also alleged that when he declared his intention to run for the governorship ticket under the PDP in November 2023, Obaseki said he would destroy him.
The deputy governor also accused the governor of orchestrating the attack on his convoy on Thursday, 18 July which led to the death of a police officer in Benin City. He alleged that the attack was Obaseki keeping true to his earlier promise to destroy him.
It will be recalled that Shaibu alongside his principal, Governor Obaseki, dumped the APC in the run-up to the 2020 Edo State governorship election following their disagreement with former governor and later National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
Eighteen-Eleven Media