It has been revealed why the erstwhile father-son relationship that existed between former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole and current Deputy Governor Philip Shaibu went sour and they both split asunder.
It all bothered on Shaibu’s refusal to be used to remove Governor Godwin Obaseki, even at the secret promise, to make him take over as governor, by Oshiomhole.
This revelation was contained in a recorded video tape watched by The DEFENDER as posted on youtube by a popular television station in Nigeria.
Shaibu said: “Oshiomhole wanted me, Philip Shaibu, to join him, knowing full well that I am closer to members-elect as at that time and members of the State Assembly. Because I spent eight years in the House of Assembly here and I spent about 18 months in the House of Representatives. And I have a goodwill among the legislators because of my own style.
“He wanted me to help him to use these same members when they are elected to remove the governor and for me to be the governor and I said no, that it’s not my nature to betray. If I didn’t betray him when he was NLC President, when I was NANS President, when I was offered money to get Nigerian students out of the proposed strike (at that time), if I didn’t betray him then, and I didn’t betray him when I was chased with money and a piece of land in Maitama, to sign an impeachment of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole as governor when I was in the State Assembly, if I didn’t betray him, then, I cannot betray my governor (Obaseki).
“I said I don’t have those tendencies and I pleaded with Oshimhole. I knelt down to beg Oshiomhole that “This government is doing well and the policies that we adopted, we are taking to the next level.”
“All the questions I asked him, he was giving me flimsy excuses and I said I cannot hold anything that Governor Obaseki has done wrong and so I knelt down and begged Oshiomhole and said, “I am your son. Why not because of me forgive?”
“And Oshiomhole said now he has confirmed that I am now with the governor. And I stood up and said, “Well, if you want to remove the governor, then you remove the governor and I. but if you want to use me to chase the governor, no way. If the governor goes, I go.” That was how I departed from Oshiomhole.
“I hate oppression. When Oshiomhole was being oppressed, we fought on his side. I was brutalized. My family were at risk. I was to be assassinated. Hired assassins came to my house and the man that he is supporting as a candidate, Pastor Ize-Iyamu, was the man that sponsored Shaba and his characters to the House of Assembly Quarters where I was living then as a member of the House, shattered the house with guns.
“The cars in front of the house, I had to change their engines after the attacks. I threw my wife and children across the fence to the next compound and that was how they were saved. All in the name of saving Comrade Adams Oshiomhole from being impeached.
“So, if I had joined to fight those oppression tendencies and those oppressors that wanted to get him out which Ize-Iyamu was part of, I told him the same energy I used to fight on his side when he was to be impeached, the same energy I will use to fight for the governor because, he (Oshiomhole) had decided to replace his own oppressors with himself to now oppress another man.
“And because I hate oppression, that was why I became an activist. I didn’t become an activist for myself. I became an activist to fight against oppression.
“If you check my record during the military, you will see that I was part of the struggle for this democracy.
“So, when Oshiomhole is talking about House of Assembly, he has had the plan to do what he’s doing. The members he’s using now are not the members that won the primaries. As National Chairman of APC, Oshiomhole got to Abuja and changed the list” of winners of the primaries and replaced it with list of these ones he is using now.
