APC: PDP should suspend Obaseki and not Shaibu

Bitterness between the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) flared up again on Tuesday, with the APC describing calls for Philip Shaibu’s resignation from the PDP as vexatious and baseless.

Shaibu, a former deputy governor of the state who was impeached on April 8 but is still a member of the PDP, on Sunday described the PDP candidate for the September 21 gubernatorial election, Asue Ighodalo, as an outsider whom voters should reject.

The former deputy governor, who lost to Ighodalo in the PDP primary, also said he would support the APC candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, whom he described as a homeboy needed to govern Edo State.

In his response on Monday, PDP Deputy Director of Media, Rev. Olu Martin, called on Shaibu to resign from the party.

He said the former deputy governor could not belong to the party and at the same time de-market Ighodalo, contradicting Shaibu’s claim that the PDP candidate was an outsider in the race.

In a new twist on Tuesday, the APC, defending Shaibu, a former party member whose former boss Godwin Obaseki was elected on the party’s platform in 2016, said the PDP should be more worried that Obaseki was leading the party into political irrelevance.

Orobosa Omo-Ojo, APC spokesman in Edo State, said in a statement in Benin on Tuesday: “The All Progressives Congress wishes to appeal to Nigerians and the people of Edo in particular to ignore the irritating and baseless call on former Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, to renounce his membership of the moribund Peoples Democratic Party because he openly declared his support for Senator Monday Okpebholo, the APC candidate.

“It is obvious that the PDP has not yet grasped the whirlwind raging within its party. Almost everyone politically relevant has left the party and those who are still in the party are just waiting to bury the party as undertakers.

“Instead of calling on Shaibu to resign, the PDP should suspend its outgoing Governor Obaseki for leading them into political irrelevance in Edo State.

“Comrade Philip Shaibu is an Iroko, the true definition of a homeboy and a political giant in the state like the APC candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo.

“The APC wishes to advise the deposed PDP to focus its energies on explaining to the people of Edo what Asue Ighodalo and his running mate intend to bring on board after both served the state for 28 years without making any significant progress.

“The only sensible thing left for the PDP is to join Obaseki and Ighodalo on a pleading tour of the state and beg for forgiveness, especially after the state government’s admission last week that examination questions for the state’s basic examination were leaked to state teachers and ultimately ended up with maize sellers.

“With this statement, we demand that the Edo State Government immediately set up an independent commission of inquiry to investigate the circumstances that led to the series of leaks in examination questions that have accompanied the so-called Edo Best education programme since 2020.”