The immediate past deputy governor of Edo, Comrade Philip Shaibu, has predicted the exit of more governors from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) following the defection of Delta Governor Sheriff Oborevwori from the PDP to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Tribune Online recalls that Oborevwori had on Wednesday, announced his defection from the PDP alongside his deputy, Monday Onyeme, member of the state executive council, members of State House of Assembly, the 25 local government chairmen, some members of the National Assembly and the “biggest” catch being Oborevwori’s predecessor and the PDP vice presidential candidate to former vice president Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 general elections, Ifeanyi Okowa. There have been reports in the media that the governors of Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom will soon announce their defection to the APC. Shaibu, who spoke with journalists on Thursday in Abuja, said the reason mass exodus has hit the PDP was because those at the helms of affairs have drifted away from the vision and ideology of the party and are only preoccupied with greed to satisfy their self-interest to the expense of the people they supposed to lead Shaibu stated that Nigeria has reached a stage and passed the level where nobody can lay claim to ownership of any party as things are evolving and new leadership emerging periodically. He said PDP is on life support and may crumble anytime soon saying the party may not have more than two governors left in its fold when the dust finally settles. He particularly singled out Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for his stance on some critical and important national issues saying only a progressive governor can think and act like him (Makinde). He said, “I’m so excited with what happened in Delta State and it’s not surprising anyway because in my short stay in PDP for about three years and before my exit and even while I was in PDP before the issues of the quarrel and the abnormality that took place. If you recall, for the first six months that I rejoined PDP, I made a statement that was misunderstood which led to one of the governors then asking me who is my father for me to be threatening the party.
“At the end of the day, people were saying he’s just an activist he’s just saying whatever he likes. But I’m not just an activist-politician saying whatever I like, but I saw that the name given to the party, the Peoples Democratic Party, and being in the party at that time, six months into the party, and I saw that it was not actually democratic. The players were not democratic, the leadership was not democratic and I shouted. And then I was asked to keep quiet.
