Chieftains of Edo North (Afemai) of Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, have thrown their support behind Governor Godwin Obaseki in current fight with his Deputy, Mr. Philip Shaibu.
Shaibu recently approached an Abuja Federal High Court to stop Obaseki, the state Chief Judge and Edo House of Assembly from impeaching him.
Spokesman of the Afemai group and former Speaker of the state Assembly, Alhaji Kabiru Adjoto, told Obaseki “to remain focused and finish his tenure well and strong.”
Adjoto said: “We came out today to disassociate the Afemai people from this ill-conceived action, and also apologise to the governor “for the unfortunate court action.
“We are surprised and embarrassed by Shaibu’s behaviour and ill-advised mission.
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“For the avoidance of doubt, the framers of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) were very clear.
“Section 193 (1) states that the duties of the Deputy Governor, inter alia, is ‘the governor of the state may in his discretion assign to the deputy governor or any commissioner of the state responsibility for any business of the government of the state, including the administration of any department of government’.
“Obaseki has been more magnanimous than any other governor in the country.
“He saddled Shaibu with the highest number of responsibilities, ranging from sports to internally generated revenue, Boundary Committee and immunisation, which earned him the sobrique ‘the busiest deputy governor in Nigeria’.
“Edo North people stand for equity, fairness and justice and we are grateful to other senatorial districts, particularly the majority tribe of Edo South, for allowing us to produce the governor from 2008 to 2016, we shall not abuse that privilege,” he said.
Also,former Etsako-West Local Government Chairman of the state, Mr Yusuf Busari, promised the governor of the people’s support.
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He advised Obaseki not to allow the crisis to distract him from the good work he was doing in the state.
On his part, former Chief of Staff to Shaibu, Mr. Jimoh Ijegbai, said that the impeachment rumour was a mere speculation.
According to Ijegbai, nobody has seen any impeachment notice, adding, “The deputy governor is our son.
“We don’t want him impeached and the matter is coming up on the 10th at the Federal High Court.
“The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has not even brought out the time table, even the current tenure will elapse in a year and some months time, yet someone is saying that Obaseki is restricting some persons not to run for governorship election,” he added.
