- PDP implored the police to investigate reports that the violence was engendered by the reckless show of force by thugs allegedly mobilised by the APC governorship candidate, Monday Okpebholo
The Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has alleged that the All Progressives Congress, APC, orchestrated the shooting that happened just outside the Benin airport on Thursday.
Recall that a clutch of armed men opened fire during the return of reinstated deputy governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, and Monday Okpebholo, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, to the state.
The duo had just returned from Abuja after the judgment reinstating the Shaibu as the deputy governor of the state.
Okpebholo’s police aide was killed during the shooting.
Reacting to the incident, PDP implored the police to investigate reports that the violence was engendered by the reckless show of force by thugs allegedly mobilised by the APC governorship candidate, Monday Okpebholo and allying prominent politicians, to accompany them from the Benin Airport into the city with the view to intimidate and instill fear in the citizens.
In a statement by its spokesman, Debo Ologunagba, the party asserted that the rush by the APC to point fingers at “some agencies of the Edo State Government even before any investigation, exposes APC’s desperation to cover its complicity in the violence.”
According to Ologunagba: “The PDP invites Nigerians to note that the preponderance of pictorial and video evidence shows that the groups and thugs in the vicinity of the attack were mobilised by the APC and the said prominent politicians, as evident in the boasting of the thugs before the unleashing of mayhem on innocent citizens.
“These pictorial and video evidence attest to the fact that no security agency of the Edo State Government or group connected to the Edo State Government was in the vicinity of the attack and that the government did not mobilise any group to the airport, its neighbourhood or any part of the city at that material time.
“It is instructive to state that the only entities that would want to cause crisis and instill fear in the people ahead of the Edo State governorship election are the APC and its allying politicians, who are frustrated that the APC has no prospect in the election given that it is stuck with an unqualified candidate.
“Our party, therefore, demands that the Inspector General of Police immediately invite and question those whose agents and supporters were seen with thugs at the Benin Airport prior to the attack, as evident in the said videos and pictures.”
The PDP also urged the police to take every step necessary to ensure the sustenance of peace and order in Edo State, particularly in the face of the confirmed schemes and inclination by the APC to cause mayhem in the state.
PDP charged its supporters and the people of Edo State not to be deterred in their rallying with its candidate, Dr Asue Ighodalo