Philip Shaibu, the Deputy Governor of Edo State, has been denied entry to his old office in the Government House in Benin, the state capital.
Shaibu arrived to Government House on Monday morning to find the gate leading to his office locked and barred.
He claims he has yet to receive an official letter from the governor’s office, which he believes is the necessary conduit for transmitting an order regarding 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.
The Edo State Governor has not responded to the news, but sources close to him say Shaibu has transferred his office to a new site outside of Government House and will not be present at the former location.
They further stated that because no meetings were scheduled for Monday, the Deputy Governor was not anticipated at Government House.
They claimed that if a meeting had been scheduled, arrangements would have been made for the Deputy Governor to attend.
Last week, it was reported that a letter from the office of the Head of Service, Anthony Okungbowa, was addressed to the Permanent Secretary, Office of the Deputy Governor, asking Shuaibu to shift to a new office at No 7, Dennis Osadebey Avenue, GRA, Benin City.
According to sources close to Edo’s number two citizen, the new office has been abandoned and is in desperate need of renovation.
