The All Progressives Congress (APC), Edo State chapter, has raised alarm over alleged illegal arms build-up by the state governor, Godwin Obaseki, and alleged reported criminal collaboration with other Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governors, particularly Senator Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State, to mar the September 19 governorship election in the state with violence and intimidation.
Col. David Imuse (rtd), the Edo APC chairman, during a press conference in Benin, alleged that Obaseki, afraid of defeat, had committed state resources to the illegal importation and distribution of firearms to the recruitment of thugs and had begun the mobilisation of criminal groups into Edo State, including one Sunday Igboho from the South-West.
He demanded the prosecution of Roland Ogbomo, a Senior Special Assistant (SSA) to Obaseki, recently arrested with pump-action rifles, and arrested thugs allegedly ferried into the state by Okowa responsible for the shooting of Ernest Otoide in Igueben Local Government at a PDP ward campaign.
He said: “Despite persistent warnings and alarms, Godwin Obaseki and his deputy, Phillip Shaibu of the PDP have remained adamant, persisting on their wicked intent to unleash mayhem in Edo State in order to subvert the election and scare away voters who have expressed their resolve to eject the incompetent governor and usher in a new lease of life with Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu of the APC.
“Although the outgoing and embattled Governor Godwin Obaseki leads the way in this criminal and condemnable plot to mar the September 19 election, recent facts have confirmed that he is not alone, but rather enjoying the support of some PDP governors in an evil partnership premised on a shared debased character of criminality, electoral violence, and a mockery of the law.
“Godwin Obaseki is in cahoot with the governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, with both characters forming a combo that is apparently, as the recent developments have shown, productive in the industry of violence. This time, their evil proficiency is focused on setting Edo State ablaze.
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“The governor of Delta State, Ifeanyi Okowa, who shot his way to a contrived victory in Delta State, has begun to lend his rotten hand to the desperate governor of Edo State, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, with the supply of thugs and gangs charged with the mission of unleashing violence and rigging the election.
“Acting under the marching orders of the tax-collecting leadership of their umbrella party, they are executing a do-or-die approach where they must either forcefully impose themselves on the people of Edo State for another term or burn the whole state to the ground, making a sorry scene and an ungovernable entity.
“This manifested on Wednesday, August 19, in Igueben Local Government when Ifeanyi Okowa, the governor of Delta State, suspiciously attended a single ward political event with an army of thugs with the objective of contributing to their militarisation of the state and to spread panic and intimidate voters.
“In this ungodly process, one of the beastly thugs devoid of human conscience that Okowa brought to the Ward rally shot an innocent bystander, Mr. Ernest Otoide, causing the innocent citizen to be hospitalised and bringing avoidable sadness and pain to his family.
“Although some suspects with dangerous firearms have been arrested and transferred from Area Command, Irrua to Police HQ in Benin City, the deep question that remains to be answered is: is this what we must endure just because of Godwin Obaseki’s self-proclaimed non-negotiability of his second term?
“As if the shameful bestiality of Okowa’s boys is not enough in the furtherance of this evil, the sad event was followed by another disturbing development involving the arrest of a Senior Special Assistant to Governor Godwin Obaseki, Mr. Roland Ogbomo, from Ward 5, Ikpoba Okha Local Government with two pump action rifles and other ammunition by the Police.
“Why all these violence and intention to wreak havoc? The answer may be unclear, but the implication is bright and vivid. The resort to violent means is a testimony of Obaseki’s political failure both as a leader and as a personality.
“The departure from democratic means has always been the way of incompetent tyrants, unfortunate despots, and inept authoritarians.
“Governor Godwin Obaseki, aided by his deputy, Mr. Philip Shaibu, and the questionable retired police officer from Kogi State, Mr. Haruna Yusuf, who is now the Obaseki-administration’s executioner-in-chief in the mobilisation of thugs and orchestration of violence, the governor has caused an illegal arms explosion in Edo State.
“We are also aware of one notorious criminal with the name Sunday Igboho brought in from the South West to help with their plans to violently subvert the will of the people and mar the election.”
He said the party had written a petition to the state Commissioner of Police and called for swift and solid actions from the security agencies to protect the integrity of the election and prevent the governor and his PDP allies from continuous execution of their plot to rig its outcome through violence and chao.
