The campaign team of the All Progressives Congress (APC) has raised an alarm that the incumbent governor of Edo state, Godwin Obaseki, was becoming too desperate to be re-elected for the second term in office.
The APC, however, asked on the relevant security agencies to take charge and neutralise all forms of thuggery, killings and disregard for the rule of law ahead of the governorship election in Edo state.
Addressing a news conference Friday in Abuja, the deputy spokesperson for the APC national campaign council, Patrick Obahiagbon, accused governor Obaseki’s camp of planning to cause “violence and other criminal acts of intimidation” to prevent voters before and during the election.
Obahiagbon alleged that the “governor’s campaign trail has now become a bad omen, a harbinger of evil, and a stage of wanton violence and shootings, causing residents to flee their homes upon hearing news of the outgoing governor’s visit.”
While calling on security agencies to act fast, the APC team said nothing warrants nor justify the undemocratic inclination to violence where the exchange of ideas should reign supreme.
“We are alarmed at the rapid multiplication of these firearms and the now-too-common presence of violent groups with prolific ammunition who are on the march with the Edo state Governor as he campaigns from place to place and in the process terrorizing the people and leaving behind an unfortunate trail of sorrow, blood, and tears everywhere he goes for campaigns.
“This was indeed the case on Wednesday, August 19th, in Igueben LGA when thugs hired and armed by the Edo state government, turned their guns on each other and shot an innocent citizen in the fracas that ensued.
“We are disappointed, disheartened, and extremely repulsed by the fact that a government that failed the youths and derided them at every turn has now gone ahead to place guns purchased with state resources that could have gone into empowerment schemes in the hands of some, urging them to wreak havoc and risk their lives, and those of others, in the process.
“We are equally aghast at the fact that a Governor that spent four years chasing away investors from Edo State with his tyranny, bad faith and targeted policies, and destruction of people’s legitimate properties on the account of their political views, has now committed state resources to the mobilization of thugs, cult groups, assassins, and other criminals into the state to carry out his murderous plans all in a bid to avoid a fate he sealed for himself with his incompetence and aloof disposition.
“All of these show clearly that the outgoing Edo state Governor has become desperate and now willing to muzzle his way back to government house but must edo state become a carnage field of blood, tears, sorrows and deaths for the realization of his second term aspirations?
“We are not only condemning, in the strongest of terms, this daily distribution of illegal arms to mobilized thugs, we demand an investigation and arrests that will be followed by swift prosecution as a mark of seriousness on the part of the security agencies to protect the integrity of the September 19 election.
“Arms proliferation has fueled insecurity in Nigeria for years and we are convinced that by clamping down on Governor Godwin Obaseki and his agents of terror, who on a daily basis are funneling state funds to the illegal acquisition and distribution of weapons, the security agencies would be laying a marker in the sand and sending a strong signal to other perpetrators of this crime that it would no longer be business as usual.
“The protection of the integrity of the Edo Governorship election from the brooding and sprawling violence of Mr. Godwin Obaseki is a collective obligation that must be shared by all well-meaning citizens and groups interested in the survival of democracy and the constitutional right and freedom of the people to determine the leadership of their state and their representatives in government.”
