By DADA AYOKHAI
It is becoming clearer and clearer with each passing day that Edo North PDP leaders are not operating on the same wavelength with the deputy governor of the state ,Hon Philip shaibu who happens to hail from the district.
From Etsako to Owan and Akoko Edo axes of the district, there is an outright apathy towards the governorship ambition of Hon. Shaibu.
*Borderline News 24 investigations reveal that there is a wide gulf existing between the state deputy governor and the notable PDP leaders in his political enclave.
The cause of the apathy and indifference to the political ambition of the deputy governor may be attributed to a chain of political events that have played out over the years and which also shaped the Hon. Shaibu persona, resulting in the frosty relationship between him and the leaders who donated the PDP to him and Gov Obaseki .
Two of the factors responsible for the negative perception relate to the deputy governor’s overbearing influence and his “grab-all mentality”.
According to sources privy to the frosty political relationship between Hon. Shaibu and the Edo North PDP leaders, the state deputy governor did not cover himself in glory when he enjoyed the support of his boss, the governor.
*Borderline News 24* further learned the Edo North leaders, most of whom would have played a key role in his guber ambition if he were on good terms with them, have distanced themselves from the project and are even said to be busy working behind-the-scene to stave off the possibility of him succeeding his principal.
In any serious political contest, the Edo North is widely perceived as the support base of Hon. Shaibu. In recent times, however, he looks like the political orphan no one wants to deal with, not even in the opposition APC where he had hoped to draw some measure of sympathy .
In the beginning, his principal, Gov. Obaseki allowed him so much political latitude and later cashed in on Shaibu’s chummy relationship with the former comrade governor, for political gains .
Under the guise that they were fighting a common political cause, Shaibu lunged at Oshiomole and pummeled him like a miscreant in a marketplace. He became the darling of his boss, Gov. Obaseki as he went on a rampage on the elderly Oshiomole, not minding the consequences thereafter.
Enter 2020, elected on a joint ticket with his boss, a bellicose Shaibu was yet to calm down. Before the election, they had defected to the PDP for political refuge when Oshiomole made the APC inhabitable for them.
With the support of Gov. Obaseki who gave him a tacit endorsement to take over the Edo North and become its political leader, Shaibu unleashed a never-to-be-seen series of political salvos on the district by becoming a law unto himself as well as ruthlessly uprooting and undermining the political status quo, an initial .
According to some credible political sources who spoke with *Borderline News 24*, Shaibu’s first job was to clandestinely snatch the political control of the district from the existing leaders who donated PDP to him and Gov Obaseki.
For example, in Etsako, he proclaimed himself as the political leader of the party against all expectations. Etsako, with three local government areas, is blessed with the likes of Chief Mike Oghiadomhe, who was a two-term deputy governor of the state as well as former Chief of Staff to President Jonathan , Senator Francis Alimikhena, who was a two term Senator and principal officer in the 7th Senate , and Senator Victor Kassim Oyofo , former Senate Chief Whip in the 5th Senate
He succeded with entrenching ” the Shaibu boys” as Chairman and Councillors in all three Etsako local government councils in the last edo state local government councils elections.
Senator Francis Alimikhena , the PDP Edo North Senatorial candidate in the February 2023 NASS Elections, was stopped by Phillip Shuaibu from producing even a Councillor from any of his four Agenebode wards .
In Owan, he was also said to have exhibited the same grab-all greed and mentality. The grand old PDP National leader of the two Owan LGAs , Sen. Yisa Braimoh is still grappling to recover from the political bruises and somersaults he received. Despite his clout and protestations, he was shockingly shoved aside by the inordinately-ambitious Deouty Governor , whilst the Shaibu boys reigned supreme in an enclave the veteran politician laboured to build and sustained over the years before Shaibu and his boys joined PDP in 2020 .
All of the available LGC political slots of Chairman , Councillors, and SLG in Owan East went to Shaibu as Sen. Braimoh’s list was discarded and substituted.
Today, the chairman of Owan East LGC and the eleven councillors are Shaibu boys.
The chairman of Owan East Council, a Shaibu boy , hails from Ihievbe while the councillor from Sen. Yisa Braimoh’s Ward is also a Shaibu boy .
The only two local government councils in edo North that were spared from the onslaughts of the sword of the deputy governor were Owan West and Akoko Edo , where Hon Johnson Abolagba and Rt Hon Kabiru Adjoto held sway .
In Akoko Edo axis ,Shaibu met his Waterloo due to the spirited efforts of Hon. Kabiru Adjoto, a former Speaker, to halt the Shaibu tsunami which swept across the district
*Borderline News 24* further gathered that the sole reason behind Shaibu’s belligerent and overbearing behaviour was to have his cronies and foot soldiers occupy sensitive positions preparatory to the declaration of his governorship ambition
