The Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, has advanced reasons why his supporters and that of his principal, Godwin Obaseki, want to dump the ruling Peoples Democratic Party two years after joining the party.

Shaibu explained that the supporters that followed Obaseki to PDP during his face-off with his erstwhile boss, Adams Oshiomhole, do not feel welcome in the party.

He added that after Obaseki resigned his membership of the ruling All Progressives Congress to join PDP, the ruling party was yet to integrate his supporters and other APC members who joined him to the new party in 2019.

“We have not been accepted into PDP and for us, we are not telling the governor it is either now or we leave.

“We are in PDP now and expected that we will be integrated. When I say ‘we’, not just Philip Shaibu, I’m talking about Anselm Ojezua (former Edo APC chairman) and the state working committee, the ward chairmen and the executives, the leaders of APC then, and all the well-wishers that left APC because of Obaseki.

“We have been meeting and we have said we need to be integrated. Anselm Ojezua resigned his membership as chairman of the state; the ward chairmen resigned; other executives resigned to join PDP.

“As I speak, they have not been integrated and we are talking about harmonisation; they have refused to harmonise. For some of us, that means we are not welcome in PDP.

“We are not saying dismantle, drive everybody and accept us. We are saying create room for Anselm Ojezua and create room for others. Just like we have done in the appointment in government — we’ve created space for the old PDP that we met. They are commissioners,” Shaibu said during an interview on Channels Television on Monday.

Furthermore, the Deputy Governor noted that though the governor’s supporters are aggrieved, they had no plan of dumping the PDP for APC.

“For me, Philip Shaibu, I have no plans to leave. For Philip Shaibu, his followers, and the followers of Obaseki that left APC to PDP, they plan to leave PDP but to where? For now, I don’t know,” he said.

“Why? Because we felt we are not accepted in PDP and that is the reason we are actually thinking that it is time to just draw the curtains and leave.

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“We left APC because of the oppression by APC national chairman meted on the governor. And for some of us that hated oppression, we decided to jettison our relationship with the godfather then to follow the governor to the PDP.”

On those behind the party’s internal crisis, Shaibu said, “We need the national to come and resolve these issues and they have been moving the goalpost from one end to another.

“The problem is from the national. I will not want to blame it on the national chairman but I will also blame him because the issues are before him. Since he took over leadership, he has not deemed it fit to call for a meeting to resolve the Edo crisis.”