The Police Command in Edo state said yesterday it had commenced a mop up of illegal arms and ammunition ahead of the Sept. 21 Governorship Election in the state.
SP Moses Yamu, the spokesperson of the command, quoted the state’s Commissioner of Police, Nemi Iwo, as saying this during a meeting with the chairmen of political parties and their respective governorship candidates in Benin.
The mop up, according to him, was aimed at ensuring security of the electoral process.
The commissioner appealed to them to prevail on their supporters to shun all forms of violence during the forthcoming election.
He assured them of adequate security to ensure that people go out to exercise their franchise without fear of harassment or any form of intimidation.
The commissioner, however, reassured them that the police and sister security agencies would ensure that all stakeholders, including electoral materials, were protected for a peaceful election.
He solicited for information that would assist the police to ensure an enabling environment for the election process.
Our reporter in Benin, last night, reported that leaders of two of the 17 participating political parties: All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), are campaigning intensively in Edo’s 192 wards, across the 18 local government areas of the state, as the two leading standard bearers of APC and PDP are the contenders, while the 15 other governorship candidates are pretenders, who may be scheming to be appointed commissioners or special advisers, after the poll.
PDP’s governorship candidate, Dr. Asue Ighodalo, a Lagos-based lawyer, who hails from Ewohimi in Esan Southeast Local Government Area, Edo Central Senatorial District, is accused by opposition politicians of not being a homeboy, and unable to speak Esan language, thereby needing an interpreter, whenever he is in his Ewohimi hometown, where he claimed to have grown up from, with Ighodalo being backed by PDP’s Governor Godwin Obaseki.
The standard bearer of APC in Edo, Senator Monday Okpebholo, aka Akpakomiza, a grassroots politician with native intelligence, who is also a businessman, represents Edo Central Senatorial District, where he was embarking on many development projects and empowering the people, before winning the election in 2023, maybe because he is a political son of the late leader of PDP, Chief Tony Anenih, aka Mr. Fix It, who hailed from Uromi, in Esan Northeast LGA, Edo Central Senatorial District, with Okpebholo declaring that he would succeed Obaseki on November 12 this year, in order to ensure good governance and commensurate development, without Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and the use of consultants that Obaseki’s government is notorious for.
The third governorship candidate that initially showed seriousness, Olumide Akpata, of Labour Party (LP) is being distracted, and he is currently in the United States of America, where he claims to be wooing Edo indigenes in the Diaspora to return home and vote for LP, as well as to continue to support the progress and development of Edo in various ways.
The chances of Akpata, a former President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), are very slim, in view of the fact that he is from the same Edo South senatorial district as Obaseki, who is being accused by opposition politicians of poor performance and inability to fulfill his campaign promises of 2016 and 2020, while declaring war against almost all APC and PDP’s chieftains that assisted him to win the polls in 2016 and 2020, while Obaseki’s defection from APC to PDP on June 19, 2020, ahead of the September 19, 2020 governorship election, and wanted to take over the structures of PDP, made him to still be fighting with the National Vice Chairman, Southsouth, of PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, the immediate Edo chairman of PDP, who is the leader of opposition Legacy Coalition within Edo PDP, with Orbih being an ally of the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Chief Nyesom Wike.
Obaseki is also becoming unpopular with his faceoff with Edo Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu, who on July 17, 2024 was reinstated by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, but he is unable to access his office, with Edo governor backing Chief Godwins Omobayo as the state’s deputy governor, while Obaseki is also engaging in a fight to the finish with the eminent first-clash monarch, the Oba of Benin, Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, Oba Ewuare II, over the looted artefacts being returned to Benin from most European countries.
Shaibu, a former member of the House of Representatives, ex-Majority Leader of Edo House of Assembly, and erstwhile President of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS), while he was at the University of Jos (UNIJOS) in Plateau State, vowed to fight on, until he is able to access his office, before the expiration of his tenure on November 12 this year, thereby recently defecting to APC from PDP, after publicly begging Oshiomhole, a former National Chairman of APC, who was Edo governor between 2008 and 2016, as both of them are from the same Etsako West LGA in Edo North senatorial district.
The indigenes of Edo Central senatorial district are clamouring for power shift to Esanland, to ensure equity, justice and fairness, since Chief Lucky Igbinedion of Edo Central senatorial district (1999-2007) and Senator Adams Oshiomhole of Edo North senatorial district (2008-2016) were Edo governor for eight years each, while Obaseki is about rounding off his eight years from 2016, thereby making it insensitive for Akpata to indicate interest to succeed Obaseki of the same Edo South senatorial district.
Another distraction for the governorship candidate of LP is having two state Chairmen in the political party in Edo: Comrade Kelly Ogbaloi, whom Akpata is backing, and a former Speaker of Edo House of Assembly, Mrs. Elizabeth Ativie, being backed by the embattled National Chairman of LP, Julius Abure, a lawyer, who is an indigene of Edo Central senatorial district.
The greatest distraction for Akpata are the two cases at the Courts of Appeal in Benin and Abuja by the leading governorship aspirant on LP’s platform in Edo, Kenneth Imansuangbon, aka Riceman, in view of his regular distribution of free bags of rice to Edo residents in the three senatorial districts.
Imansuangbon, a lawyer and billionaire philanthropist, who hails from Edo Central senatorial district, refused out-of-court settlement with Akpata and pleaded for the understanding of LP’s leaders who tried to intervene to ensure peace and progress, even after he lost at the Federal High Courts in Benin and Abuja, while expressing optimism of emerging victorious at the appellate courts.
APC’s Okpebholo, who speaks Esan and English languages fluently, but being accused by PDP’s leaders of not being able to write or speak in English, challenges Ighodalo to a debate in Esan language, which the standard bearer of PDP is avoiding.
The governorship candidate of APC, who on July 18, 2024, lost his police orderly, Inspector Onuh Akoh, of No. 45, Police Mobile Force, Abuja, who was attached to Okpebholo, at the exit gate of Benin airport, shortly after he landed from Abuja, and accompanied by Shaibu, who were ambushed by gunmen, who also injured many persons, including APC’s standard bearer in Edo, last night raised the alarm over threats to his life and the lives of the teeming supporters.
Okpebholo, told PDP’s thugs that shot to disrupt his yesterday’s campaign rally at Ugbekpe-Ekperi in Etsako Central LGA of Edo that: “You will cry for shooting at us.”
Obaseki and Ighodalo, while also speaking yesterday at PDP’s campaign rally at Iguobazuwa in Ovia Southwest LGA in Edo South senatorial district, told members of their party to eject thugs and fraudsters, who were claiming to be homeboys, with Ighodalo promising to build on Obaseki’s solid foundations and enduring legacies.
The Nation
