By DADA AYOKHAI
After the temporary cessation of hostilities, it appears the lingering face-off between the Edo State governor and his deputy is yet to be resolved
Right in the presence of a coterie of security agents and aides, the face-off resurfaced this Monday morning as the deputy governor attempted to bulldoze his way into the Dennis Osadebe Government House in Benin to resume work .
Either he was simply acting in total ignorance of the relocation order issued some weeks ago by his principal or he just wanted to show bravado in challenging the status quo, Hon. Shaibu arrived at the main entrance to the one-floor building housing his former office and to his chagrin found it locked with chains and heavy padlocks.
Recall Gov Obaseki had, in the wake of the face-off, ordered top officials of the state government to relocate the office of the deputy governor.
While carrying out the task, the top officials procured a desolate and abandoned old building in a different part of the Benin GRA to serve as the deputy governor’s office
Pictures of the “supposed” new office building later went viral and in a desperate effort to defend its actions, the state government said the office of the deputy governor was undergoing renovation.
On getting to the state house on Monday morning, the Deputy Governor met the gate locked with chain and padlock.
In a telephone conversation on yet to be identified person, the deputy governor said
“Up till now, I don’t have any official communication that I should relocate. The only people that have official communication are my civil servants. The civil servants have official communication but I don’t. As I am speaking to you now, I am standing by the gate,”
A Government House official who witnessed the altercation revealed that the deputy governor and his team were kept waiting for about an hour before he left,
Also, his pleadings reportedly fell on deaf ears. The source added that It seemed as if the security agents were on strict orders not to allow the deputy governor and his aides access the building.
Strangely, some of the unofficial media aides of the governor their Facebook posts claimed the deputy governor and his team arrived at the gate this morning with the intent to gain “forceful entry” into the governor’s personal office. They added the intentions were clearly sadistic, either to provoke his principal or engage him in a free-for-all verbal confrontation
