Governor Godwin Obaseki has redeployed Osayande Aisagbon, director of protocol (DoP) at the Edo government house, to the ministry of culture and diaspora affairs following alleged embarrassment he (Obaseki) suffered during a visit to the palace of Oba of Benin last month.
According to a memo, Obaseki ordered that Aisagbon be redeployed over the alleged embarrassment and the DoP was replaced with Mosis Obakpolor, a staff of the same ministry.
Obaseki visited the Benin monarch on July 25 for royal blessings as part of his reelection campaign but was unable to present kolanut and gin in line with the palace tradition for the blessings.
He was accompanied by Nyesom Wike, national campaign chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo.
The monarch had reportedly asked for kolanut to offer the prayers for the visitors but none could be provided.
“The governor was embarrassed. It’s the responsibility of the protocol department to handle such assignment, so somebody has to take responsibility,” a source in the government house was quoted to have said.
“The governor and his visitors were embarrassed over the development and such matters ought to be handled by the protocol department so somebody has to take responsibility. What happened was unfortunate. It’s not as if the kola was not bought. The kola was brought late when the Oba was already seated with his guest and you know with that, nobody comes in when the Oba is seated.”
Among the governors who visited the monarch were Ifeanyi Okowa (Delta), Aminu Tambuwal (Sokoto), Seyi Makinde (Oyo), and Bala Mohammed (Bauchi).
Agboola Ajayi, deputy governor of Ondo state; Uche Secondus, national chairman of PDP and Raymond Dokpesi, chairman of DAAR Communications, were also at the palace of the Oba.