Strong indications emerged, yesterday, that the embattled Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, may rejoin the All Progressives Congress (APC) next week, barring any last minutes change of mind.

A high-ranking member of the APC confirmed that talks on his defection had been concluded and he would be received into the party early next week by the APC National Working Committee (NWC).

“It has been confirmed. We have it on good authority that the Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, has concluded plans to join the APC. He is to be received along a few of his supporters into the party early next week by the National Working Committee of the party. Shaibu has been in talks with the state and national leadership of the party even before the feud between him and the governor went public and has been negotiating his way back into the party. The deputy governor has now perfected his defection to the party and we are glad and ready to receive him into our folds. It is no longer if but when the defection would come. I can tell you that all plans have been finalised.”

The defection would end months of speculations on his future with the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

This is amid the political turmoil between him and his boss, Governor Godwin Obaseki, over alleged non-support for his governorship aspiration.

The decision by Shaibu to pitch tent with the APC, it was learnt, came after his move to the Federal High Court to seek an injunction against an alleged impeachment plot against him. Obaseki has, however, debunked the impeachment plot allegations, saying Shaibu’s court order to stop his purported impeachment was preemptive ahead of his defection to the APC.

However, both the state chairman and secretary of the APC, Col David Imuse (retd) and Lawrence Okah, respectively, denied knowledge of Shaibu’s planned return to the APC. (Daily Sun)