It was earlier reported that Governor Obaseki admitted that there was a rift between him and his deputy, Shaibu.
Governor Godwin Obaseki of Edo State has accused his deputy, Philip Shaibu of lying on oath that he stopped him from attending the Executive Council meeting in a court summons.
Obaseki said he was disappointed with his deputy for accusing him of plotting to impeach him and querying the offence he committed that would warrant his impeachment.
It was earlier reported that Governor Obaseki admitted that there was a rift between him and his deputy, Shaibu.
According to the governor, Shaibu has become so desperate to succeed him that he can do anything to remove him from office.
Obaseki who spoke while addressing stakeholders in a video posted by AIT on Friday, revealed that his deputy, Shaibu attended an EXCO meeting and signed attendance, yet he swore an affidavit in court that he was prevented from the meeting.
Maintaining that aspiring to be a governor is legitimate and within Shaibu’s constitutional and fundamental rights, Obaseki, said, “I am not angry, I am just disappointed.”
He asked how somebody would swear to an affidavit with wrong information.
The governor told the stakeholders that he advised Shaibu to wait and that there was a lot of work to do regarding finding his successor.
“I said the timetable for the election is not even out, why not wait? There is a lot of work for us to do, let us not be distracted. But for him, no. He continued. I didn’t say a word and I haven’t said a word to him.
“The next thing I knew is that he went to court, he said he is going on holiday, and I approved as usual for him to go on his annual holiday. And he travelled, he didn’t tell me he is travelling, and the next thing I knew he is serving us a summons; that he has gone to court that there is a plan to impeach him. I said impeach you, what have you done?
“If you want to run for the office of the governor, there is nothing wrong. It is your constitutional right to run for office if you want to, however, you are in the same cabinet with me, please, there is a way you do something.
“You should try to show some respect to some people. If people see you even before the time going around what do you expect other candidates around the other people that have the interest to do? The natural feeling is that oh! the governor has already done, say, meanwhile the governor never says.
“I cannot support such unfairness, let us have the timetable, let us sit down with our leaders, let us agree on how we want to do this thing, are we going to be doing to-me-to-you thing or to allow other people to participate, let us agree. He said we want to impeach him.
“I called the Speaker, Speaker, what am I hearing? Is there anything, some of you came to Benin that Sunday for one meeting, you remember? That was when the Speaker told me that he phoned that he said that they want to impeach him and I asked him, ‘What did you tell him?’ He said that he told him that there was nothing of such.
“I checked and asked what is going on. Who wants to impeach and why? Before you know it, I got a court summons that he went to get an order preventing us from impeaching him. Since there were no such plans, it doesn’t bother me.”
“What is disturbing is the excuses he gave in his petition but it is before the court. How can somebody swear to an affidavit, a public officer, with information that is patently wrong and false that I stopped him from coming into EXCO? Meanwhile, you attended that EXCO and you signed. I am not angry I am just disappointed,” the stated.
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