Leaders of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State clashed in Benin on Sunday, August 18, over allegations of harassment, unlawful arrests, and detention of party members.
During a news conference at the PDP state secretariat on Airport Road, Benin, Matthew Iduoriyekemwen, Director-General of the Asue/Ogie Campaign Management Council, accused policemen from the Intelligence Response Team (IRT) in Abuja of indiscriminately arresting and detaining PDP chieftains across Edo’s three senatorial districts.
He further alleged that the police actions were orchestrated by APC leaders, who purportedly paid large sums of money to facilitate the arrests.
Iduoriyekemwen said: “The police officers have been operating outside the scope of their job, carrying AK-47 rifles and other dangerous weapons, and moving around Edo State in Hummer buses and Hilux vans, to harass and abduct our party chieftains across the state.
“It is rather unfortunate that while the PDP members are diligently working, moving from ward to ward and local government to local government, actively campaigning across various platforms, articulating their programmes and initiatives for the people of Edo State, the APC is attempting to weaponise the police against the people because they know they have a defective and unmarketable candidate and cannot win under any circumstance in a free, fair and credible election. Their only strategy is to use what they term federal might to harass and intimidate opposition parties into submission in their quest to secure electoral victory through subterfuge.
“It is pertinent to note that the days in which political parties win elections by wanton intimidation are far gone, and Edo people are going to stand firm in resistance to any form of harassment and intimidation by any group or persons, no matter how highly placed.
“We believe that this devious resort to harassment and intimidation is a recipe for anarchy and we are calling on the Inspector-General of Police; AIG, Zone 5; Edo State Commissioner of Police, and other security agencies to step in and stop these harassments and intimidation by these suspected band of APC police operatives believed to be on illegal duty, to prevent a descent to anarchy in the state.”
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PDP’s director-general also called on Civil Society Organizations (CSOs), other stakeholders and the international community to turn their attention to Edo state and take note of the rather disturbing pattern of harassment and intimidation.
The director of publicity, Edo APC governorship campaign council, Comrade Orobosa Omo-Ojo, however, maintained that nobody was harassing the leaders of PDP in Edo, but declared that the indicted members of the party (PDP) should face prosecution for murder, treason, and other criminal activities.
Omo-Ojo said: “PDP in Edo State has become a huge embarrassment to itself, with its unrelenting media attack on the Nigeria Police Force, and other security agencies in the country.
“PDP’s leaders have abandoned the governorship campaigns to concentrate on mischievous propaganda to cover up their failure to articulate campaign strategy, which has become obvious with their dwindling members.
“APC members in Edo have been under intense violent attacks from the state-sponsored Edo State Security Network (ESSN) and the Public Work Volunteers (PUWOV), as the groups planned and murdered Police Inspector Onuh Akoh, the security aide to the governorship candidate of APC, Senator Monday Okpebholo in cold blood, at the Benin Airport’s exit gate on July 18, 2024.
“A chieftain of PDP, Prince Emmanuel Origin, was on national television calling on the Nigerian Army to sack the democratically-elected Federal Government of Nigeria, and told Nigerians that he was present at a meeting where members of the Presidency, including Vice President, Kashim Shettima; Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; and Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila; perfected plans with some notable APC leaders in Edo State to rig the September 21 governorship election in Edo State, while President Tinubu would be on a disguised trip out of the country. These are obvious infractions of the law that need thorough investigation.”
The director of publicity, Edo APC governorship campaign council also reiterated that PDP’s Governor Godwin Obaseki escalated the violence in the state with his threat that Nigeria would burn, if the police went ahead to arrest the people that murdered Akoh, of No. 45, Police Mobile Force, Abuja.
Omo-Ojo called on the leadership of PDP to cooperate with the law enforcement agencies in the investigation of the various crimes that were committed by members of the party, while asking Obaseki to summarily disband the ESSN and PUWOV, as a sign of his party’s readiness for a peaceful election.
The newly-appointed Edo Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Moses Yamu, a Superintendent of Police (SP), was contacted for his reaction, but he promised to get back to our reporter, but he had not done so, at press time.