A former deputy governor of Edo state and member of the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Philip Shaibu, has declared support for the candidate of the opposition party, the All-Progressives Congress (APC), Monday Okpebholo, in the upcoming governorship election in the state.
Shaibu, who was impeached by the state assembly after an unsuccessful bid to replace his former boss was speaking on the sidelines of the 2024 Father’s Day celebration at Saint Paul’s Catholic Church in Benin City, the Edo State capital when he made the declaration.
He said, “I will support a homeboy, I came into politics to contest as the governor of Edo State because I need government to return to homeboy- people that understand our plight, people that understand what the people are feeling.
“Even the United Nations talk about the need for assessment. We don’t want outsiders, we have experimented, with outsiders and it’s not working, so this time around, we want homeboy.
“Today I came in as a homeboy, we have only two homeboys in the major political parties in Edo State. One is in labour, and one is in APC, and I choose to follow another homeboy in the APC.
“The man they are parading in the PDP is an outsider, and we have also agreed that no more godfatherism in Edo, so the man the PDP is trying to portray in Edo now is the godson of Obaseki, and there is no way godsons will now be governor of Edo.”
He noted that the current governor and his former running mate, Godwin Obaseki, has said everyone was free to choose who to support in any election, adding that it was on the basis of that statement that he has come out publicly to back the APC candidate in the election despite his PDP membership.
“The governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki says that everybody has the right to support whoever he wants to support, but he forgot also that he doesn’t have the right to stop anybody from whom he wants to support.
“But I take one part from what he said, we all have the right to support whom we want to support, so it’s my right to decide who I want to support.”
