My deputy is desperate, his actions amount to coup, says Obaseki on rift with Shaibu

• Obaseki said Shaibu has become so desperate to succeed him, ahead of the Edo governorship election in 2024
• Obaseki said the height of Shaibu treachery was when he discovered that he was working with the APC to influence the outcome of the state assembly leadership election

Godwin Obaseki, governor of Edo, has said that Philip Shaibu, his deputy, is a man of inordinate ambition and his willing to go to nefarious length to actualise his aspiration.

Obaseki and Shaibu have been at loggerheads over purported power tussle, a situation that is fueling rumour of the imminent defection of the deputy governor to the All Progressives Congress (APC).

On July 28, Shaibu approached a federal high court in Abuja with a suit to stop an alleged impeachment plot against him.

Shaibu accused the governor of preventing him from performing his constitutional duties.

Addressing stakeholders in a video posted by AIT on Friday on the political imbroglio, Obaseki alleged that Shaibu has hatched a plan to kick him out of office.

Obaseki said Shaibu has become so desperate to succeed him, ahead of the Edo governorship election in 2024.

The governor said Shaibu was bragging about his reliable connection with people in the federal government.

“He (Shaibu) went to Abuja and was boasting that he has connections in Abuja, that he has people in the national assembly, that they are all with the president now, that they will take care of him,” Obaseki said.

“That if he cannot get the ticket in PDP, he knows what to do”

Obaseki said the height of Shaibu treachery was when he discovered that he was working with the APC to influence the outcome of the state assembly leadership election.

“I kept quiet and said I thought we were together. But what struck me, and I have never said this to anybody, is that after I proclaimed the house of assembly, we were now going to elect officers.

“He was in Abuja, he came back that day. I am the chief security officer of this state. I get any information I need. But I have that responsibility to keep quiet and use the information properly.

“My deputy called the leader in APC, telling that leader that during the elections on the next day, particularly speaker of the house of assembly, that he has five members who are loyal to him and that he would like the seven members of APC to work with his five members of PDP to produce the next speaker.

“As far as I am concerned, that was not working in our common interest.

“Why would the deputy governor seek to have another speakership candidate outside of what the governor wants? Are we working together?

“That was when I knew we had a problem. That the deputy governor has become so desperate to take over that he would do anything, including carrying out a coup, against his governor.

“How can you say you are loyal and you will do such a thing?”

Obaseki said he has repeatedly told Shaibu to keep his governorship ambition in check because there is still a lot of work to be done before next year’s transition.