By Ozioruva Aliu, BENIN CITY

Edo state politician and a member Board of Trustees, BoT, of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Charles Idahosa, has said that Governor Godwin Obaseki has no right to restrain his deputy, Philip Shaibu’s political ambition.

He said the inability of leaders to tell the governor the truth contributed to the recent rift between Obaseki and his deputy, which led to the office of the deputy governor being relocated out of the government house.

In a chat with journalists in his residence, Idahosa also carpeted the recent celebration of the 60 years anniversary of the Midwest Region, saying the event was a bazaar as it has no significance to the people even as he insisted that his position that the next governor must be a homegrown person has not changed.

According to Idahosa, “That fight was totally unnecessary and from what I read in the papers and what I saw, I doubt if anybody will be interested in being a deputy governor because it is no longer attractive because the deputy governor was messed up.

“He was rubbished and made to look like nobody.

“I have been in politics for a very long time and I know what it is; Ambrose Alli had problems with his deputy, but it did not come to this level.

“I was very disappointed by the comments of some leaders saying go and respect your boss, our party is not a refugee camp, and so on. I was very disappointed.

“The governor has no right to tell his deputy the limitation of his ambition. That is as clear as daylight, he does not have such right.”

He said former Governor Adams Oshiomhole did not support his deputy but he did not deny him of contesting, but only used the leaders to make sure that Obaseki got the ticket and that did not strain their relationship to date.

“If you have been able to work with your leaders and your leaders are happy with you, you don’t need to bother yourself about your deputy governor.

“Tell the leaders and the leaders will do your bidding but the problem came because he (Obaseki) had nobody to go to.

“I want to appeal to the leaders to say the truth and speak up because whether you like it or not this government will come to an end in eight or nine months’ time,” he said.

He also called on the leaders and members of the PDP to put their house in order before the 2024 governorship election.