My battle with Oshiomhole is political, not personal-Shaibu

By DADA AYOKHAI

The Edo State deputy Governor, comrade Philip Shaibu said the battle between him and his estranged political godfather, comrade Adams Oshiomhole was purely political and not  personal .

Comrade Shaibu made the clarification during  an interview with a national daily.

He said, " I never had a personal battle with Oshiomhole and I don’t intend to have one with him. We only had political differences and we both fought in opposing camps. We will all recall that Oshiomhole was oppressed when he was governor of Edo State and I was one of those who fought for him. I was injured and had a knee cap replacement due to the injury I sustained.I still have scars on my body as a result of those fights.


 "All those fights were to ensure he survived the five impeachment moves against him.


" In fact, the last one was very close. We fought to a level that we had to remove the roof of the State House of Assembly and relocate the parliament to the Government House using the rule which gave us power as the majority leader and the Speaker to move the parliament to the Government House. 

"Nine of us perfected this move that saved him from being impeached.

" This is just my style – fighting against oppression. This time, I fought him in favour of Governor Godwin Obaseki, whom Oshiomhole was oppressing.

 As I said, I hate oppression and I would still have fought on Governor Obaseki’s side if I wasn’t his deputy.

" Moreso, this man that was being oppressed was doing what we agreed. We started a vision in 2006 and the document was drafted in the office of Obaseki in Lagos.

 "When Oshiomhole became
 governor, he appointed Obaseki as the chairman of the economic team of the state so that he could help in the implementation of the ideas in the document which rested solely on rescuing the state from infrastructural decay and repositioning it (the state) as well as the mindset of the people to good governance.

" After Oshiomhole finished his tenure, Obaseki took over and as his deputy, I could see that he was following the plan and taking it to a higher level which means that our agreement and vision are still intact but taken to a digital level.

" So, if the man is doing well, I see no reason why he should be oppressed and removed from power. 

"So I joined the fight and made it clear that I was for Governor Obaseki. I have no regrets about making that decision. If it happens again, I will take the same decision because Edo State is in the news for the right reasons. 


"We are building infrastructure and we are now talking about policies and ways to institutionalise them so that things can work well. 

"We are no longer concentrating on just building individuals but we are now strengthening our institutions that will help everyone.

" Right now, I sleep peacefully because I know that I did the right thing. So, I thank God for giving me the wisdom to fight on the right side. 

"Politically, for now, we are in different camps but I don’t have any personal problem with him."

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