Edo Political Crisis: Protesters block highway, secretariat over the sack of Council Chairman (see photo)

Communities in Etsako West, including Auchi, have issued a stern warning to Godwin Obaseki and Philip Shaibu to halt and abolish the illegal suspension and removal of the chairman of Etsako West Local Government, Hon. Musa Yakubu Ishiorenua.

Yakubu was reportedly suspended for detecting and reporting a fraud linked to an Obaseki loyalist.

A massive protest has broken out in Auchi community today Monday, August 5, 2019, with hundreds of residents backing the Chairman and decrying the growing dictatorship and bias of the Governor and Deputy, Philip Shaibu, who has been identified as the mastermind of the crisis.

Etsako West LG Secretariat entrance

Those who spoke to newsmen denounced and berated Philip Shaibu in strong terms, recounting his flagrant abuse of office both as Deputy Governor and Chairman of Land and Boundaries Adjustment Commission. They expressed frustration at the political crisis instigated by the Deputy Governor and vowed to resist him and his boss in the local council.

This is one crisis too many for Godwin Obaseki who is now increasingly estranged from his party, both at the national and local level. Across the state, his popularity continues to sink following discoveries of corruption, bias, dictatorship and a flawed personal character which makes it hard for him to take sound advice.

OSUN REPORTERS gathered that a tipping truck has tipped some heaps of sand in front of the Etsako West secretariat, limiting movement into the building and potentially paralyzing activities in there.

Protesters at the Etsako West LG

The resistance of the people to Obaseki’s suspension and removal of the Chairman is based on its illegality and the clandestine mission to replace him with the Vice-Chairman who has been linked to a 46 million naira scam overlooked by Godwin Obaseki because he is considered ‘loyal’.