Oshiomhole to Shaibu: APC not a rehabilitation centre for IDPs

The former national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Adams Oshiomole, said on Thursday the Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, would not be accepted in the party.

Oshiomole stated this in a chat with journalists in Benin City, the state capital.

He was reacting to rumours of Shaibu’s planned defection from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to the APC following his rift with Governor Godwin Obaseki.

The former Edo State governor said the APC was not a rehabilitation centre for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs).

Obaseki and his deputy are currently at loggerheads over irreconcilable differences.

Shaibu had last week approached the Federal High Court, Abuja, to restrain the governor from going ahead with the plan to impeach him.

The pair fell out with Oshimhole before the completion of their first term in office in 2019.

They later dumped the APC for PDP after Obaseki was disqualified from the party’s governorship primary in May 2020.

Oshiomhole said: “However, what is happening that you are talking about is only what I read in your newspaper according to the angle you chose to report it and not because you want to report lies but because you don’t know the fact behind the figures.

“All I can say is that regardless of the party divides, it is my wish for Edo to be governed in peace and harmony because of the super party to which we all belong to the federal republic of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: I introduced Oshiomhole to politics —Shaibu

“The political parties even the rates of decamping and recamping shows that the only thing that is constant is Nigeria and not the political parties.

” To that extent, as someone who has had the rare privilege to be the chief steward at the Osadebe Avenue, it is my wish that this government and even future governments regardless of the political parties, govern in peace.

“But what I read, if that is what you are referring to about somebody going to court to complain about suspicion of being impeached, I don’t know how court adjudicates over suspicion, maybe I am a very poor legal student.

“I don’t know about that but let me say this, to say that somebody wants to run to APC, APC is not a rehabilitation centre.

“I can tell you that for free. We in APC, are satisfied the way we are, we are happy in opposition and we are not about to receive people who are coming because they have lost out.

“No IDP camp in APC.”

He, however, expressed his support for the party’s decision to zone the governorship ticket to Edo Central for equity.

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