By Kassim Afegbua
Thursday, 18 July 2024 has gone down in Edo’s political chronicle as a bloody day, with sounds and fury. It was a day that the Edo State Police Command showed manifest compromise and complicity, and let loose the gates of hell, by allowing agents of Governor Obaseki to unleash mayhem on political opponents.
Those who were eye witnesses have since written their accounts of the oddity, as they finger the Edo state Governor, Edo State Security Network and members of the Public Works Volunteers, as the masterminds. Their intention was to prevent the reinstated Deputy Governor, as declared by the Federal High Court, Philip Shuaibu, from gaining access to Benin City and perhaps, his office. The APC Guber Candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, was the most affected as his Police Aide for over twelve years, Inspector Onu Akor, paid the supreme price vide bullet wounds from the assailants who had laid siege on the exit route of the Benin Airport in Benin City. It was a commotion that lasted about 45 minutes with a rain of bullets and cake of crimson. The victims were all in pools of blood; five of them were rushed to various hospitals for emergency treatment. Inspector Akor was not lucky; he gave up, dying in the line of duty; gallant policeman of exemplary courage, Akor was trying to clear the way for his boss who was faced with torrents of bullets. Rather than expose his boss to bullets, he picked the bullets for his boss. A great guy, very serviceable and full of passion for his job.
Since the incident, copious perspectives have been proffered as to the logical angle to the debacle; listening to the eye witnesses accounts, it is easy to decipher the most probable rationale that precipitated this onslaught. A man who was reinstated by the Federal High Court cannot possibly orchestrate an attack on himself to the extent of killing his own aide: jubilant Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shuaibu arrived Benin to march triumphantly to the Government House to resume office, when an orchestrated pandemonium erupted claiming the life of one of the aides around him. He couldn’t, by any stretch of the imagination be his own Achilles heel, when jubilation was his article of faith. The Governor’s threat when he was addressing members of his party in the Government House thereafter, “if they tried what they did on Thursday we will born down Nigeria” clearly exposed him as the architect of the attack. His veiled reference to “they” was just a smart way to shift the blame in a most cowardly manner. Of curious note was the presence of the State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Funsho Adegboye, at the airport at that time; only for him to vanish in a jiffy, without installing what would have been a check against the break down of law and order. The presence of the Commissioner of Police alone, and no men, raises more posers, curiosity and points to conspiracy than any plausible explanation he has given to shift blame.
Why was the CP at the Airport that morning? What was his response when he was pointedly told that there were unholy movements at the exit gate to the airport, coupled with a blockade by a Sienna sedan vehicle with Asue-Ighodalo campaign sticker on its plate number design? What action did the CP take when he was informed of the happenings around the exit gate? Why did the CP reportedly escape through the Entrance Gate to the airport instead of the Exit Gate? Why was he always talking on the phone each time he was told of the noise around the Exit Gate? Who was he talking to? Why did the CP not mobilize his men to the airport before and even when he was told of the impending incident? In a location that was just four minutes drive from the State Police Headquarters, and with the staccato of gunshots that reverberated in the area, why didn’t the CP deploy his men to quell the attack? Having left the airport, why did he rush to his office to maintain conspiratorial silence all through the period, until supporters of Senator Okpebholo and members of the APC took the corpse of the slain officer to the Police Headquarters? Even when the APC members went there, his conscience failed him as he was unable to come out to address the crowd to assuage their anger and calm their frayed nerves. It took the intervention of the Assistant Inspector General of Police, zone 5, Benin to calm the anger on that fateful day. That the APC hierarchy in the state demanded the sack of the CP was in response to his complicity and partisan role that he exhibited on that day. The fact that there was obvious failure of intelligence and security response, is enough reason for the CP to be shown the exit door from Edo State Command.
The presence of the CP at the Airport is suggestive of the fact that he was aware something untoward was going to happen. This is aptly captured in his own claim that he went to the airport to meet with Comrade Phillip Shuaibu, to ask him what his itinerary was on that fateful day. That he exposed those VIPs to the torrents of bullets and the pandemonium that erupted, is enough reason to accuse him of complicity and accessory to the facts and attack; and, as said before, enough reason to sack him from the Police Force. Since he knew that Philip Shuaibu was arriving the airport, he should also have known that there may be resistance; was he then not supposed to have stationed his men at the airport to secure it and obviate any incident from taking place? A Police Officer like him had to pay the supreme price, the ultimate price, just to service the bulbous ego of a man who wants to hog the seat of power in Edo State; Obaseki didn’t even come out to decry the incident. What a shame! Isn’t that gaffe enough to accuse the CP of dereliction and abdication of his duty? There have to be consequences. We cannot continue to reward failure, simply because it serves someone. The accretion of these nefarious acts spells danger for our future. The officer who lost his life could have been saved if only the CP acted differently and more responsibly when he was told at the airport, that some suspicious and unusual movements were ongoing around the exit gate of the Benin Airport. From all logical angles, the CP undeniably compromised his position and allowed what should have been nipped in the bud to fester. Trying to twist the narratives to suit the government’s side further injures the antipathy the Edo people feel against the current government.
Governor Obaseki’s administration is one of tyranny and democratic dictatorship. A run down of his time in office shows several attacks, concatenated. Courtesy of Obaseki, Edo has been variously in the news for the wrongest reasons. The Governor’s combative posturing has been most ungubernatorial. His threats have become the dominant items on his menu list. A run down of his serial attacks on Edo people will show a behavioural pattern that is most primitive, brutish, outlandish and unbecoming: he attacked elected House of Assembly members at Escalibor Hotel in Etete, Benin City, when he refused to inaugurate 14 members of the Assembly, and succeeded whimsically to run the Assembly with a minority figure of nine members for four years. He orchestrated an attack on Senator Adams Oshiomhole at the Benin airport having declared the latter persona non-grata in tbe state. He also went ahead to mount a truck around the former Governor’s house at Okorotun street off Ikpokpan way, Benin City. Also, he orchestrated an attack on Pastor Ize-Iyamu and his supporters at Garrick Memorial School, Ekenhuan to prevent Ize-Iyamu from joining APC in December 2019. At Iyamho, after a convocation ceremony, he tried to prevent Adams Oshiomhole from entering a university he Oshiomole, established as Governor.
Governor Obaseki’s reputation as a demolisher of properties and people is legendary. Chief Tony Adun, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere, Dr Pius Odubu, and many others too numerous to mention have been his victims. If anyone held a different opinion in the state on state matters, they were punished; Sen. Matthew Urhoghide tasted Governor Obaseki’s bitter pills at the Benin Airport, when Obaseki’s thugs unleashed an attack on the Benin Senator. Recently, the Labour Party candidate, Olumide Akpata was attacked inside Uniben by agents of the state for running for governor. One of Governor Obaseki’s strong supporters in 2016, and former Attorney General of the state, Henry Idahagbon, was attacked in his office on Siluko Road, Benin City, with bullet holes all over the building. The APC State Secretary, Lawrence Okah also tasted Obaseki’s bitter pills when his house was attacked with improvised bombs; he escaped by the whiskers. This latest attack on Thursday, is a replica of the pattern of attacks by a government that is highly insensitive to criticism, and bridles at any form of opposition. He takes no prisoners in his pursuit of his goals. After humiliating Senator Adams Oshiomole so egregiously, as elections were coming, he tried to woo the same Sen. Adams Oshiomhole, to support his deceitful candidate, Asuen Ighodalo. Obaseki is a tyrant; he single handedly sponsored the removal of Oshiomole as National Chairman of the APC. Also, he ensured that Dr. Pius Odubu was removed as Chairman of NDDC and also destroyed Chief Victor Ekhator’s career in the NDDC. My point is: Obaseki is a bad person; he is malevolent and maleficent. He is no good and no good can come from him. Ensconcing dark passions trapped within him, yet shrouded in his sly smile, he masterminds and countenances evil; he certainly is set to self destruct, and should
not be allowed to continue to be relevant in Edo State.
Afegbua, a former Commissioner for Information in Edo state is the media consultant Edo APC campaign organisation
