For Philip Shaibu, the sacked deputy governor of Edo State, it not only rains, it pours. Thrown out ignominiously from office, Shaibu no longer feels secured under the umbrella of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, and is in search of political asylum in his former party, the All-Progressives Congress, APC. But he is meeting with a stiff resistance.
On Tuesday, the Etsako kinsmen of the deeply embattled erstwhile political power monger resisted his attempt to return to the party after four years sojourn in the PDP.
In a protest march to the party’s secretariat where they submitted a petition, APC stakeholders from the 12 wards in Etsako West local government area chapter of the party, kicked against alleged plan to re-admit Shaibu into the fold. They brandished placards with various inscriptions like: “We Reject Philip Shaibu; Philip Shaibu, We Don’t Want You in APC; Philip Shaibu, you have No Political Value; and Philip Shaibu, APC Is Not for Refugees”.
Presenting a communiqué on behalf of the protesters, Yakubu Musa said the former deputy governor’s exit from APC in 2020 had brought peace and tranquility to the party, positing that his re-admittance into APC would further bring rancour and disunity in the party.
According to Musa, “We are protesting over an attempt by the impeached deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, to jump boat and defect to APC. The attempt is viewed seriously by members of APC as a calculated plan by Philip Shaibu to bring rancour, disharmony and unprecedented crisis into APC”.
Pleading with the National Chairman of the party, Senator Abdullahi Ganduje, Senator Adams Oshiomhole, former governor of the state, and the State Acting Chairman, Jaret Tenebe not to allow the impeached deputy governor into APC, the protesters contended that Shaibu has no political value to add to APC.
Musa said “It is on record that Philip Shaibu has not won any election since he left APC to PDP. Philip Shaibu does not possess any electoral value that could warrant his re-admittance into our great party. We call on our national leaders to hear our voice and help us keep the peace we currently enjoy as APC in Edo State.
“Any attempt to enroll Philip Shaibu into APC is a direct invitation to crisis, fragmentation, disaffection, disenchantment and disintegration”.
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