The Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, was allegedly denied access to his old office at the Government House in Benin, the state capital.
It was gathered that Shaibu arrived at the Government House on Monday morning, September 18, 2023, but met the gate leading to his office under lock and key.
He says he has yet to receive a formal letter from the governor’s office and that, according to him, is the proper channel to transmit a directive pertaining to the relocation to a new office.
“Up till now, I don’t have any official communication that I should relocate. The only people that have official communication are my civil servants. The civil servants have official communication but I don’t. As I am speaking to you now, I am standing by the gate,” he said while on a phone call to a yet-to-be-identified person.
It was also gathey that Shaibu and his aides waited for about an hour and left.
He was said to have made frantic calls trying to reach the Governor but to no avail,” the source added.
The deputy Governor was said to have summoned the Government House Camp Commandant, Ibrahim Babatunde, and asked him why he was locked out of his office.
Babatunde reportedly claimed it was a directive from above, adding that the Chief Security Officer, CSO, of the Government House, Williams Wabba, would be in a better position to explain.
The Edo State governor has not reacted to the development, but sources close to him say Shaibu has relocated his office to a new location outside of the Government House and was not expected at the old office.
They also explained that there was no meeting scheduled for Monday so the deputy governor was not expected at the Government House.
If a meeting had been scheduled, they said arrangements would have been made and the deputy governor would have been allowed to attend.
Last week, a letter said to be from the office of the Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa, was reported to have been sent to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Deputy Governor directing Shuaibu to relocate to a new office situated at No 7, Dennis Osadebey Avenue, GRA, Benin City.
