..says Shaibu courting LP to pursue governorship ambition
…accuses PDP of brutalizing, suppressing LP voters in local election
Edo APC Chieftain, Prince John Mayaki, has accused the state’s Deputy Governor, Mr. Philip Shaibu, of cajoling supporters of Peter Obi and the Labour Party in Edo State with “patently dishonest comments” in a bid to generate momentum for his rumoured 2024 governorship ambition.
He was responding to the deputy governor’s recent statement in which he praised the youths of the country behind the Obidient wave, while also criticizing the conduct of the just-concluded general elections, with blame laid at the feet of President Muhammadu Buhari and other electoral stakeholders.
Mayaki said, “The infamous deputy governor is merely trying to revive his political career, which is presently dead in the water, by shamelessly pandering to a growing voter base in Edo State.”
“In his usual opportunistic style of joining any trend perceived to be popular, similar to how he began to wear khaki to copy a self-professed mentor he has since betrayed, Shaibu seeks to lie his way into the Obidient fold ahead of a possible exit from the PDP to pursue his ill-fated governorship ambition next year.”
He continued, “It is funny to see Philip Shaibu take a moral high ground on the subject of rigging after he connived with his desperate principal to unleash the worst kind of terror on Edo North voters, especially the same Obidients he now embarrassingly genuflects to, in the recently-concluded State Assembly election.”
“If Nigerian elections are imperfect, it is because of the dishonourable role the likes of Shaibu have consistently played, and continue to play, during electoral contests. Unwilling to subject themselves to the judgement of the people knowing that they have disappointed and consequently stand rejected, they scuttle and disrupt, oftentimes leading an army of reprobates to the homes of opponents where they leave destruction in their wake.”
Mayaki also dismissed as duplicitous Shaibu’s call for the old guard to surrender power to the youths of the country.
According to him, “If the almost sixty-year-old Shaibu is serious about a change of guard in the country, then he should announce his withdrawal from the 2024 governorship contest in Edo State and back a younger candidate in his stead.”
“Just because his actions and character fail to reflect his biological clock doesn’t mean he is a child. A man nearer to sixty than he is to fifty, yet unrelenting in his quest for power in a country where the median age is 18, should not be leading conversations about the transfer of power to the youths unless, of course, such a man lacks self-awareness.”
“Obidients in Edo State must shine their eyes and not let into their midst this patently dishonest and unscrupulous character. He is desperately shopping for a new home after he polluted and broke the PDP in Edo State with his presence. They must not fall for his gimmicks and instead display the discernment contained in an eternal message that has guided transactions in Nigeria since time immemorial: buyers beware!”