I remain Edo deputy governor – Philip Shaibu

Philip Shaibu has said he remains the Deputy Governor of Edo State in the aftermath of Wednesday’s court judgement reinstating him after his removal by the state House of Assembly in April.

He shoved the appeal accompanied by a request for a stay of execution speedily filed by the House of Assembly against Wednesday’s judgement of the Federal High Court in Abuja.

“This is the judgement of the court,” Mr Shaibu said, displaying a copy of the verdict when he appeared on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Friday.

“A declarative judgement of the court. And a declarative judgement, if you follow the law, the Supreme Court law, you cannot stay a declarative judgement,” he added.

The Edo State House of Assembly removed him from office on 8 April over allegations of gross misconduct.

Governor Godwin Obaseki immediately nominated Omobayo Godwins as Mr Shaibu’s replacement. The House of Assembly confirmed Mr Godwins’ appointment, and the governor promptly swore him in as the deputy governor the same day.

However, the Federal High Court in Abuja upheld on Wednesday Mr Shaibu’s suit challenging his removal from office, holding that the allegations over which the House of Assembly removed him did not constitute acts of gross misconduct.

The court nullified Mr Shaibu’s removal and ordered his reinstatement to office.

The judge, James Omotosho, also ordered the payment of salaries and entitlements since the House of Assembly illegally removed him from office in April.

The House of Assembly expressed dissatisfaction with the judgment and appealed against it.

But Mr Shaibu said Thursday that based on legal procedure, he still holds the Edo State Deputy Governor’s position until the court issues explicitly an order to stay the execution of the judgement.

He added that a court of law does not stop executing a declarative judgement like the one he obtained.

He further said that merely filing an appeal and applying for a stay of execution of a judgement does not automatically operate as an order of stay of execution.

“A motion or application,” Mr Shaibu said, pausing momentarily, and added, “Does it act like stay? You are telling me I want to do X, and I have not granted it; it cannot act as stay.”

Mr Shaibu also claimed to have resumed duty. He also wrote to the government to reinstate all his political appointees.

His insistence on returning to office after obtaining the judgement shows he has rejected the counsel of a former National Legal Adviser of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mark Jacob.

Mr Jacob, who commented on the verdict on Arise Television’s Morning Show on Thursday, said Mr Shaibu would become redundant and an outsider in the government if he returned to office.

He also viewed Mr Shaibu’s desire to return to office as a long-shot dream, considering the interminable length of time it would take the Supreme Court to give the final decision on the matter.

Meanwhile, the tenure that Mr Shaibu aims to complete ends in November, about four months away.

Support for APC candidate

Mr Shaibu alongside Governor Obaseki defected from the All Progressives Congress (APC) to the PDP to realise their re-election bid in 2020.

But Mr Shaibu has declared support for his former party’s governorship candidate for the upcoming 21 September Edo State governorship election, Monday Okpebholo.

Explaining his stance, Mr Shaibu, whose governorship ambition drew a wedge between him and Mr Obaseki, said he was unwilling to support an outsider presented by the PDP as its governorship candidate.

He also claimed he followed in the footsteps of Mr Obaseki’s endorsement of the 2023 Labour Party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi, instead of the then-PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar.

But, months before the 2023 presidential election, Governor Obaseki, through one of his aides, denied backing Mr Obi.

Allegations, counter-allegations over violence

Meanwhile, Mr Shaibu blamed Thursday’s attack on him and the APC governorship candidate, Mr Okpebholo, on Governor Obaseki, continuing a flurry of allegations and counter-allegations that has ensued between him and the Edo State Government after the incident.

Gunmen reportedly attacked Mr Shaibu and Mr Okpebholo on Thursday while departing the Benin airport shortly after they arrived from Abuja aboard a chartered flight.

The Edo State Police Command has confirmed that a police inspector died in the attack, equivocally blaming the violence on “political gladiators”.

Speaking on the incident on Friday, Mr Shaibu said he had long received intelligence foretelling it.

“Yesterday (Thursday), I got intel that the governor has told his men that they must not allow me into town and that I am a freeborn of Edo State. Nobody can stop me from entering Edo State, and the constitution does not allow anybody to bar me from entering Edo State,” he said.

He alleged that he had been on the governor’s target since he declared his intention to run for the 2024 governorship election.

He said, “I didn’t know he would arm them that much. Reviewing it further,… I remember the governor saying during this crisis when I declared to contest for the governor that if I continued, he would destroy me. He used the words, ‘If you continue, I will destroy you’. So with what happened yesterday, it was obvious that it was an attempt to actualise that statement he made that he was going to destroy me.”

Meanwhile, the Edo State Government blamed Mr Shaibu for attacks on innocent residents around the airport axis in Benin, the state capital, on Thursday.

Contrary to Mr Shaibu’s claim of coming under attack, the state government wrote in a thread of tweets on Thursday that “Shaibu led thugs through Airport Road axis of Benin City, attacking innocent citizens and unleashing mayhem on private citizens who are going about their lawful businesses.”

It claimed Mr Shaibu’s violent tendencies were well documented, vowing that “Shaibu will face the consequences of violence that he has resorted to in pursuit of his aim to return to the Edo State Government House even when he is aware that a stay of execution of the judgement has been filed.”

The tweet added, “The State Government, through this statement, is warning Shaibu to desist from this turn to violence in the pretence that he is enforcing a judgement. He is reminded that he is not above the law and is liable for the wanton destruction perpetrated by him and his co-travellers.”

Allies turned foes

Mr Shaibu’s removal last April was the peak of the political feud between him and Governor Obaseki.

The feud stemmed from Shaibu’s ambition to succeed Mr Godwin, who preferred a different person from another region of the state, which he considered better suited to the zoning arraignment in the state to succeed him.

Both men, once allies, have become adversaries.

Their re-election in 2022 was largely due to the strong alliance they formed against their former benefactor, Adams Oshiomhole, who had supported their rise to office in 2016 but fell out with Mr Obaseki before the end of Obaseki’s first term.

As the 2020 election approached, they were compelled to leave the All Progressives Congress (APC), which Mr Oshiomhole then chaired at the national level, and to seek their re-election on the PDP platform. This move was driven by Mr Oshiomhole’s opposition to their candidacy as the APC’s flag bearers.

READ ALSO: Police arrest couple for allegedly torturing 13-year-old ward

They contested for a second term and won on the PDP platform.

But no sooner had they settled down for the second term than Mr Shaibu’s ambition to succeed Mr Obaseki began to draw a wedge between them.

Despite Governor Obaseki’s insistence on a successor from the Edo Central zone of the state, Mr Shaibu, who hails from Edo North, obtained the PDP governorship nomination form.

In February, the governor’s preferred candidate, Asue Ighodalo, emerged as the winner of the party’s primary election, even though Mr Shaibu declared himself the winner of a parallel poll.

The conflict between the governor and Mr Shaibu fluctuated between periods of calm and intense strain until their deteriorating relationship reached a breaking point, catalysing Mr Shaibu’s removal from office by the state House of Assembly in April.