The rift between Edo State governor, Godwin Obaseki and his estranged deputy Philip Shaibu has assumed a new dimension as the latter was on Monday barred from entering the Government House.
Reports say that Shaibu got the shock of his life when he got to his office on Monday and found that the gate to the office of the deputy governor and the main entrance leading to the storey building was locked with chains and heavy padlocks.
He was said to have waited outside the gate for about an hour before leaving the scene despite making frantic efforts to reach the governor to no avail.
An aide to Shaibu, who shared the pictures to the public under anonymity, revealed that the deputy governor had some discussions with the Commissioner of Police and the Director, Department of State Services {DSS}, alerting them of how he was locked of his office.
He also said that there was no official communication to the effect that the deputy governor’s office had been locked.
Shaibu was said to have summoned the Camp Commandant at the Government House, SP Ibrahim Babatunde, querying why he was locked out of his office.
Babatunde was said to have told Shaibu that “it was a directive from above, adding that the CSO in Government House, Wabba will be in a better position to explain.”
Shaibu was said to have called Wabba Williams on phone, who promised to come to the scene, but never came all through the period Shaibu waited.
There has been no love lust before Obaseki and Shaibu, with rumours of an impending impeachment proceeding against the deputy governor by the Edo State House of Assembly. That prompted Shaibu to approach a Federal High Court in Abuja for an injunction restraining Governor Obaseki, among others, from moving against him.
Though Shaibu eventually withdrew the case from court after both Obaseki and the House of Assembly denied any intention to impeach him, he was recently allocated another building along Osadebe Way, GRA, Benin, as his office, far outside the Government House where the deputy governor’s office is situated.