Obaseki behind siege to my home, says Oshiomhole – TheNigerialawyer

* Governor, police deny attack as APC, Omo-Agege seek probe

ALL Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman Adams
Oshiomhole on Sunday accused the Edo State government of
orchestrating Saturday’s siege to his Benin home.

There is a frosty relationship between the party chair, who is
the immediate past governor and his ‘godson’ — Governor Godwin
Obaseki— ostensibly over the governor’s second term bid.

Explaining the Saturday night ‘attack’ on the chairman’s home,
Oshiomhole’s spokesman Simon Ebegbulem told The Nation on the
telephone: “The National Chairman was in Benin on Saturday to
attend a birthday party. While he was still at the party around
8pm, the state government sent thugs to his house. They were over
50 singing war songs.

“They blocked the entrance of his gate until the security people
there called those with him (Oshiomhole) to alert him about what
was happening. That was how APC youths were swiftly alerted and
they stormed the house with policemen.

“The thugs fled when they saw the youth and policemen. We are
wondering what thugs will be doing at the residence of the national
chairman at that time of the night.

“If the national chairman had arrived there without knowing,
they would have attacked him. We are accusing the state government
because the governor has been clamping down on all those opposed to
him.”

Ebegbulem claimed that the action at Oshiomhole’s home, was part
of the resolution reached at the last Exco meeting that all
opposing anti-Obaseki second term bid be attacked.

But Governor Obaseki denied having anything to do with the
attack. The governor’s spokesman Mr. Crusoe Osagie said: “It is a
lie. There was no attack. Nothing happened in the area where
Oshiomhole lives.

“The Edo State government has said it has no knowledge of the
purported attack on the person or residence of Comrade Adams
Oshiomhole. We have no knowledge of the attack. We have also
reached out to the police, and they affirmed that they do not know
about such an attack.”

Edo Police Commissioner San Mallam Abubakar also denied there
was an attack. The police chief said some persons at the party
chairman’s home planning a protest were dispersed.

However, the APC and Deputy Senate President Ovie Omo-Agege
condemned “the attack” and called on the police to investigate
it.

In a statement, the party’s National Publicity Secretary, Lanre
Issa-Onilu, said: “Although, the APC National Chairman has rightly
called for calm after the apparent attempt on his life, we call on
Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammad Adamu and other relevant
security outfits to investigate the ugly incident and prosecute the
sponsors and attackers.

“In Edo State, just as in any other state, everyone must be free
to go about their normal and legitimate activities without
harassment, intimidation, threat to life and property.

“It is clear that the sponsors of the attack are bent on causing
crisis in the state in pursuit of their desperate and unpopular
political interests. Human life is greater that anyone’s political
ambition.”

Senator Omo-Agege described the development as “callous,
cowardly, inhumane and totally unacceptable that should be
condemned by all.”

A statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Mr.
Yomi Odunuga, quoted the Deputy Senate President as noting that
politics should not be allowed to degenerate “to a situation where
violence becomes the language of activism by both politicians and
their supporters, no matter how disgruntled such persons may
be.”

He said: “Such criminal attack, remains utterly condemnable and
illegal. Whatever their grievances, they should learn to explore
dialogue rather than resort to violence.

“I call on the police to get to the root of the matter by
prosecuting those involved in the act. It is my belief that the
fine principles and ethos of democratic practice do have inbuilt
mechanisms through which internal wrangling can be resolved without
recourse to violence as it was the case in Edo State on
Saturday.

“I would like to call on the parties involved to explore those
options that would strengthen the party as entrenched in the
constitution of the APC as that is the best way to move the state
and the nation to the Next Level in which all citizens are expected
to reap the dividends of the trust they reposed in the government
led by President Muhammadu Buhari”, he said.

Omo-Agege urged parents to warn their wards against political
violence, adding that the attack negated democratic principles.