A former deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has announced his support for the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Monday Okpebholo, in the upcoming September 21 governorship election in Edo State.
Shaibu mentioned that the governorship race began with three local contenders: himself, Okpebholo, and Olumide Akpata from the Labour Party (LP).
“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 talks 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,” he said.
“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 Obasek, and there is no way godsons will now be governor of Edo.”
The former deputy governor made his remarks during the 2024 Father’s Day celebration at Saint Paul’s Catholic Church in Benin City, the Edo State capital, where he served as one of the altar attendants for the main mass.
Shaibu emphasized that since he had withdrawn from the race, his preferred candidate among the remaining contenders is Okpebholo. He pointed out that Edo governor, Godwin Obaseki, has stated that everyone is free to support any candidate in an election. This is why he has openly endorsed the APC governorship candidate, despite being a member of the PDP.
He clarified that his support for the opposition is not an act of disloyalty to his party, noting that even Governor Obaseki had partly aligned with both the PDP and the Labour Party in the last election.
“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,” he said.
“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.”