The deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shuaibu, has dismissed claims by the 14-Edo lawmaker that his principal, Godwin Obaseki, has killer-squad detailed to kill the All Progressives Congress (APC) national chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.
The 14-Edo lawmaker had while accusing Governor Obaseki of hatching a plan to kill Oshiomhole and other APC leaders in the state, said: “We want to believe that because the leaders of our party across the country have been quiet to call Governor Godwin Obaseki to order, he has been further emboldened to kill everybody due to his desperate ambition for a second term.
“He has recruited a killer squad in Edo State and their mandate is to kill Comrade Oshiomhole and other APC leaders. So he has continued to creating crisis and distrusting public peace,” they noted.
However, reacting to the claim while speaking to newsmen in Abuja, Shuaibu alleged that it was the APC boss that should rather be accused of training a killer squad, due to his claim that he has infantry.
Asked what he knew about his governor training a killer squad to kill Oshiomhole, he replied: “I don’t know anything about the governor’s kill squad. The governor does not have any squad, rather it is Oshiomhole who boasted in both social and in the conventional media that he has an infantry.
“So, if we are looking for the person who has a killer squad, it should be the person who has infantry that should have a killer squad,” he insisted.
On the possibility of peace reigning in the party, the deputy governor maintained that the condition for peace to reign politically between him and Oshiomhole, is an apology and an endorsement of the governor for the second term.
“The only condition for two us to be on the same page politically is for him (Oshiomhole) to come back to Edo State as a father and say what has happened is in the past.
“And that he believes now that Governor Obaseki has taken the governance to the next level and for all of us to come back together and vote him for the second term. When he (Oshiomhole) does that I will now be on the same page with him politically,” he said.
Responding to accusation that he betrayed Oshiomhole, Shuaibu said: “The issue of betrayal is relative. Whoever has said I betrayed Oshiomhole, I don’t know what they meant by that.
“Oshiomhole remains my father and I remain his son although presently we are on different pages politically and it is bound to happen. It doesn’t change the fact that he remains my father and it doesn’t change the fact that I remain his son but what is critical is that we have disagreed on the issue of the governor of Edo State.
“I am supporting Governor Obaseki because he has not changed what we believe in. He has not deviated from what Comrade Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole started and the foundation he laid,” he insisted.