Obaseki transfers Shaibu’s relative from sports commission

The Permanent Secretary of the State Sports Commission, Mrs. Sabina Chikere, has been transferred to the Central Admin Department at the Government House in Benin City by the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki.

Prior to her recent redeployment, Chikere, an in-law of state deputy governor Philip Shaibu, served as the club’s general coordinator for Bendel Insurance Football Club of Benin.

Maryann Philip-Shaibu, the spouse of the deputy governor, is the older sister of the former Insurance General Coordinator.

According to a source who provided confirmation of the incident to the Saturday PUNCH, it was not unrelated to the tension between Obaseki and his deputy.

The vital first-round preliminary encounter between Bendel Insurance and ASO Chief of Algeria, scheduled for Saturday at Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin, is less than 24 hours away.

“Mrs Chikere’s rise to the position of Permanent Secretary was allegedly influenced by the embattled deputy governor,” the source claimed, “as she (Sabina) was not a core civil servant in Edo and should not have been given the position.”

To stop Obaseki, the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, the Chief Judge of Edo State, and others from starting an alleged impeachment process against him, Shaibu had petitioned a Federal High Court in Abuja.

Although the governor denied the assertion, the two men’s friendship had deteriorated.