Tony Osauzo, Benin
Edo State Media Campaign Council of the All Progressives Congress for the state Governorship election, yesterday, called out the PDP and its candidate, Governor Godwin Obaseki, over alleged shootings at the governor’s rally in Igueben on Wednesday.
The Council in a statement, said the incident confirmed its previous allegation of the governor’s importation of guns and inclusion of buses full of armed thugs in his convoy.
According to the statement, chaos broke out Wednesday, August 19, near the residence of a PDP chieftain in Igueben, Chief Tom Ikimi, when armed thugs escorting Governor Obaseki’s campaign turned on each other in a shoot-out that landed at least one person in hospital with a leg reportedly riddled by bullets.
Quoting eyewitnesses in the Governor’s campign trail who confirmed the shooting which reportedly sent many people scampering for safety, the statement said the shooting occured when the thugs hired from neighboring states disagreed as some of them reportedly belong to rival cult groups.
It said things got out of control when a batch of the thugs, traveling in a separate vehicle on governor’s campaign convoy, alleged that his group had greater notoriety for violence.
The boast was said to have provoked an angry reaction from the other group and both dueled in a frantic shooting that scared guests at the event, including Governor of Delta State, Senator Ifeanyi Okowa whose security agents reportedly moved quickly to protect him from being caught in the melee.
The APC said their previous alarm on Governor Godwin Obaseki’s importation of guns and other ammunition and the hiring of armed thugs to intimidate and inflict violence on innocent Edo people who express rejection of the candidate on their campaign trail was confirmed by the shooting.
In a statement by Mr. John Mayaki, the Chairman of the Media Campaign Council, the party said the shooting sent the whole community into a fear-filled silence and quietness, while quoting confidential sources that revealed the armed thugs responsible for the shooting routinely followed the Governor’s convoy in an Audi A4 vehicle and a Toyota Corolla.
“Although condemnable in every sense of it, this incidence is not totally surprising when considered against the background of emerging and developing news in the past weeks. It is important to note here that we have called the attention of security agencies in Edo State, urging them to rise to the occasion and intercept the almost unbridled influx of firearms and strange groups into Edo State by the Governor.
“We have demanded that the Inspector General of Police, the DG of the DSS, and heads of the security agencies, commence an immediate undercover investigation into the convoy of Governor Godwin Obaseki with a view to identifying all arms-bearing personnel to ascertain their status and whether they have the authorization, under the arms regulation laws of the country, to bear arms and irresponsibly intimidate the public.
“We condemn this violent act in the strongest terms and alert the Presidency, security agencies, international bodies, election monitoring groups, and all CSOs focused on election integrity to this illegality and wanton violence funded and orchestrated by Governor Godwin Obaseki and his PDP because if unchecked, they would soon unleash worse things on the innocent citizens of Edo State who are about on their civic obligations.
“As a party confident of victory, the APC wants an election, not a war. The same cannot be said for Mr. Godwin Obaseki who lacks both achievements and vision, and has since committed state resources to the orchestration of violence and acts targeted at undermining the election”, the statement said.
But the PDP denied the incident while reacting to the APC’s statement yesterday.
State Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Chris Nehikhare, said “Nothing like that happened.
“The APC should be questioned. They know so much about what happened. They have become so desperate.
There was no shooting, our people do not carry arms, they are the ones who carry arms. They have run out of what to say, they should look for something else to do,” Nehikhare said.