Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki has relocated the office of his estranged deputy Philip Shaibu outside the Government House Complex, Benin as their relationship takes a turn for the worse.
Shaibu, who was physically stopped by Obaseki’s security aides from exchanging greetings with the governor at a church service last Sunday, will now operate from a building formerly used by the State Public Procurement Office in Benin.
The building is located at 7 Dennis Osadebey Avenue, a short distance from the deputy governor’s former office in the Government House.
It was undergoing renovation yesterday with a signpost newly erected outside the gate.
The signpost carries the inscription “Office of the Deputy Governor, NO 7, Dennis Osadebey Avenue, GRA, Benin City.”
The building was commissioned on December 16,2014 by the then Governor Adams Oshiomhole.
Contacted by phone on the development, Communication and Orientation Commissioner Chris Nehikhare said: “If there is Edo State government’s signboard at the entrance, stating that the new building is now the office of the deputy governor of the state, then it must be so.
Twenty four hours after last Sunday’s showdown in the church, the state government disbanded Shaibu’s media crew after the deputy governor walked out of a colloquim organized by government.
He claimed that his media aides were prevented from accessing the event with him.
The governor accused Shaibu of planning a coup against him, but Edo deputy governor insisted that he remained loyal to the governor.
