…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.
