By Seyi Odewale
There was violence in Benin City yesterday as the court-reinstated deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, made his way to the Edo State capital.
Trouble started when some armed men, suspected to be vigilante members, opened fire on the motorcade of the embattled deputy governor on his way out of the Benin Airport, in Benin City.
Shaibu, who landed at the Benin Airport in a chartered aircraft in company of the candidate of the All Progressive Congress (APC) in the September 21, 2024, governorship election in Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo, was received by his supporters.
*One feared dead, others injured after attack involving APC guber candidate’s convoy in Benin
ThisNigeria learnt that immediately the motorcade hit the ever-busy Airport Road, the armed men, suspected to be vigilantes, in a Sienna vehicle parked across the road, opened fire, while Shaibu’s supporters, among whom were some armed men too, responded with gunshots.
The exchange of gunshots, which occurred at about 2pm, left commuters on the road scampering to safety.
It took the intervention of regular security agents to restore normalcy, as the armed security agents shot sporadically to disperse the warring parties.
Recall that Shaibu was reinstated on Wednesday by a Federal High Court in Abuja, headed by Justice J. K. Omotosho, who voided his earlier impeachment by the Edo State House of Assembly on April 8, 2024.
Shortly after the court judgement, Shaibu’s supporters boasted that the embattled deputy governor would resume his office on Thursday (yesterday).
Following the threat to resume, the Edo State Government issued a statement, reiterating that the deputy governor, Godwins Omobayo, remained the valid deputy governor as the Assembly was said to have appealed the judgement and filed a stay of execution.
After the shootings, Shaibu drove in the company of Okpebholo to the APC state secretariat, where they went into a closed-door meeting.
Reacting to the development, the legislative aide to Senator Okpebholo on Media and Communication, Godswill Inegbe, in a statement, accused a leader of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Chief Francis Inegbeniki, of being the mastermind of the fracas.
Inegbe, in the statement alleged, “During the unprovoked brutal attack, three mobile policemen attached to the security detail of Senator Okpebholo were injured with bullet wounds, while one of the policemen has been declared dead!
“Senator Monday Okpebholo is at this moment admitted in an undisclosed hospital in Benin City receiving medical attention, and other members of his entourage who were victims of the brutal attack are in various hospitals in Benin City,” Inegbe affirmed.
Denying the allegation of his involvement in the fracas, Inegbeniki said that he was nowhere near the Airport not to talk of sponsoring or leading anyone to attack the motorcade of the APC candidate.
The PDP leader, who described the allegation as a plot to tarnish his image, said, “It is not true that I led or sponsored thugs on protest along Airport road in Benin City. As I speak, I was never on Airport Road at the time the said confrontation took place.
“It is very wrong for anyone for any reason to accuse me of leading or sponsoring any protest. I urge the government, security agencies, and the general public to disregard the falsehood The election is around the corner, and I quite understand that my enemies would do anything desperately to blackmail me or tarnish my reputation.”
He added that as a peaceful and law-abiding Nigerian, and at his age, being an elder statesman, he would never contemplate such an act.
Meanwhile, the deputy governor’s office located at Osadebey’s Avenue in the Government Reservation Area has been taken over by members of the Edo State Security Network (ESSN)
Over 100 armed men of ESSN took over the office.
The stern-looking men of the state-owned security outfit took charge of security of the office with no one allowed to go in or out of the office.
It was, however, not clear whether the deputy governor, Marvellous Omobayo, was in the office at the time the ESSN men took over his office.
