Some support groups of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Etsako West Local Government Area of Edo state on Tuesday, protested against alleged plans by the former deputy governor of the state, Philip Shaibu, to stage a return to the party.
The protesters marched through the streets of Auchi, the local government headquarters, terminating their march at the secretariat of the party in Auchi where they submitted a communique containing their resolution.
The spokesperson for the protesters and a former local government chairman of Etsako West LGA, Yakubu Musa, reading the communiqué, says that they would resist any attempt by Shaibu to return to the party.
They argued that since Shaibu left the party in 2020, he had not been able to win any election conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), adding that his return would not add value to the party.
The group also criticised Shaibu for his alleged role in the 2019 Edo House of Assembly crisis, where 14 elected lawmakers were not sworn in as members of the House.
The communiqué in part reads: “Without doubt, the pains, sorrow and anguish Hon Philip Shaibu inflicted on our Party and the G-14 candidates who contested and won the 2019 General Election to represent their respective constituencies in the Edo State House of Assembly are still very much fresh and unhealed.
“This is because APC and the direct victims are yet to recover from Shaibu’s inglorious midnight inauguration of the Assembly and all his subsequent evil machinations which have made Edo State a laughing stock on matters relating to state legislature.
“Hon Philip Shaibu made history as the mastermind of an onslaught that prevented our elected House of Assembly members from being sworn in, thereby denying their respective constituencies any form of representation for a long and full tenure of four years.
“We call on the National leader of our party, APC, His Excellency Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu not to listen to the plan of mischief as orchestrated by Hon Philip Shaibu. He has no service to render in APC and there is No Vacancy for him in the Edo State Chapter of APC.”
They made a similar appeal to the National Chairman of the APC, Abdullahi Ganduje, and also called on the Senator representing Edo North, Adams Oshiomhole, not to allow Shiabu’s overtures to him, pave the way for his return to the party.
Reacting to the protest in Auchi, the media aide to Philip Shaibu, Musa Ebomhiana, said those protesting were sponsored and did not have any role to play in the return of Shaibu.
“It is the leadership of a political party that receives people, the leadership takes their decision.
“It is not those who protested that will decide whether he will be received or not. Those protesters are not the ones to decide who should come into the party or not,”
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