By Sir Ralph Okhiria
As preparations are in top gear towards the forthcoming Governorship election in Edo State, Political leaders, particularly those in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), have been very busy trying to out run one another.
Serious political campaigns have been on-going. There have been alignments and realignments. Some of the APC leaders have vowed that the incumbent governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki must not get the Party’s nomination necessary for contesting for second term.
Making good their threats to deny the sitting Governor of his second term ambition, heavy weights members of the party, including four Governorship Aspirants recently formed a powerful alliance against Governor Obaseki.
It has been a ding-dong affair with their eyes on the party primaries which is fast approaching. Already, there are two factional executive bodies of the party at the state level.
The executive body headed by Barr. Aselm Ojezua is loyal to the state governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, while the one led by a retired Army Colonel Imuse, has the backing of national chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhiole.
Interestingly, both groups are parading themselves as the authentic leaders of the party. Also, both groups have teeming supporters.
There has also been a gale of suspension among the combatants. National Chairman of the APC was suspended at his Ward, local and state government by the governor’s loyalists while Governor Obaseki was himself suspended from the party by Comrade Oshiomhiole’s followers.
Equally, nearly all executive members from both groups have either been suspended or outrightly expelled. However, the supposed suspension have had no effect on those concerned.
Recently, things became messier when the state government placed a ban on Political rallies throughout the state.
APC members, especially leaders of the Edo Peoples Movement (EPM), a political pressure group within the state branch of the APC, kicked and disregarded the ban on political rallies, saying that it was a policy targeted against them.
National Chairman of the party and immediate past Governor of the state, organised a political rally in Auchi, Edo North Senatorial District obviously to shore up support for his group (EPM) and also to receive decampees into the party.
This was not to be as Governor Obaseki was enraged by the actions of the APC national Chairman and his followers. He had threatened to deal with his predecessor anytime he tasked the will of the state government.
But few days later, a political rally was held in Benin City by leaders of Egor local government area. Deputy Governor of the state, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu and the chairman of the local government, Ms Eghe Ogbemudia whose suspension from office was few days earlier, lifted by Governor Obaseki were some of the notable Politicians loyal to the Governor Obaseki, that attended the ceremony.
Barely a week later, the leaders and members of the APC loyal to the national Chairman of the party, organised an earth shaking rally at Ekpoma, the administrative headquarters of Esan West local government area. it rally could be termed as survive of the fittest and there were clashes.
But sadly, three violent attacks have taken place in Benin City. The immediate past Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice, Barr. Henry Idahagbon was violently attacked in his office located along Siluko Road in Benin City, by heavily armed gun men. Idahagbon narrowly escaped being killed by the Gunmen.
He pointed accusing fingers against the state government, alleging that he saw government emblem on one of the vehicles allegedly used by the Gunmen. But the state government quickly washed it’s hands off the attack.
Another attack occurred again barely one week after the gun attack against Hon. Idahagbon. This time around, the attackers stepped up their game as they used lexplosive devices to bombard the residence of Chief Francis Inegbeniki. Luckily, there was no fatality in the bomb incident, although the compound was seriously devastated.
Again, the owner of the bombed house, a founding member of the EPM, Chief Francis Inegbeniki, wasted no time in laying the bombattack on the door step of the state government but the state government, once again denied culpability.
Yet, another bomb blast occurred on Tuesday morning in the residence of the factional state secretary of the APC, Engr. Lawrence Okah, who narrowly escaped death with members of his family.
The attack which occurred when an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded at his residence is said not to be unconnected with the squabbles over the 2020 governorship election.
Addressing journalists on the attack on his residence in Benin City, Okah, who has been suspended by a faction of the APC loyal to Governor Godwin Obaseki, said he was asleep at night when he heard a loud bang and woke up to see that it was a bomb that exploded in his house.
He said it was by luck that he and other members of his family survived the attack, noting that a second bomb that fell close to his bedroom failed to detonate, otherwise, it would have been more devastating.
Okah said that the members of the police anti-bomb squad who came to the scene removed the bomb that failed to detonate, shortly after the first bomb blast wreaked havoc on parts of his residence.
He alleged that the attack was politically motivated and targeted at him for not supporting the governor in his second term re-election bid.
Also a chieftain of the APC and governorship aspirant, Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who visited the residence of Okah, alongside other aspirants, including a former deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu, condemned the incessant attacks and use of explosives on perceived political opponents ahead of the governorship election.
Ize-Iyamu, who also accused the state governor of being behind the political violence in the state, said the use of explosives to fight perceived political opponents was politics taken too far.
“Not too long ago, a former Attorney General and Commissioner of Justice in the state, Henry Idahagbon, narrowly escaped assassination while at his law firm in Benin City.
“This is a former chairman of Egor Local Government, who campaigned throughout the state for Governor Obaseki during the 2016 governorship election. Simply because he is at the forefront of those saying that they cannot support the governor for a second term because the governor didn’t perform, he was almost killed,” Ize-Iyamu said.
But the state government reacted swiftly, saying the allegations by Ize-Iyamu, a former governorship candidate of the Peoples
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