Oshiomhole, Obaseki loyalists trade words over Edo explosion

The Benin home of the Secretary of a faction of the All Progressive Congress in Edo State, Mr Lawrence Okah, was allegedly bombed in the early hours of Tuesday by unknown people.

The faction is loyal to the APC National Chairman and ex-governor of the state Adams Oshiomhole.

The  windows roof and some parts of the house  were destroyed by the explosion, digging a hole  where the device fell on.

This is came  barely 24 hours after the party’s national headquarters announced the reconstitution of a peace  committee headed by ex-chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande.

Okah, who spoke to  journalists, said he was lucky to be alive as the first bomb thrown at his room did not explode.

He said some gunmen had earlier fired gunshots at his residence last week  Tuesday.

He pointed the finger at  Governor Godwin Obaseki over the attack.

He said, “On Tuesday last week, I heard gunshots. They shot at my bedroom. The police came and picked up  52 bullets here.

“Yesterday at about 12.30am, I heard a loud noise. I called my security guards and they said it looked like a bomb. The one they threw at my bedroom did not detonate. If that one had detonated you would not have seen me.”

A leader of the party in the state, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, who visited Okah,  told Obaseki to caution his men, adding that Edo should not be turned to a war zone.

He said Obaseki and his deputy Philip Shaibu must not kill to get a second term.

Ize-Iyamu, who defected from the Peoples Democratic Party to the APC recently, said,  “Since the beginning of these series of attacks on our members in the state, we are surprised that no arrest has been made. First, it was the shooting incident in which two persons were injured at Henry Idahagbon’s chambers. It was followed by the bombing of  Francis Inegbeneki’s residence and now Lawrence Okah’s home was bombed this morning.

“Will the police say they don’t know how to go about it or not. We know that if the police want to do their job they can do it perfectly, so we are calling on them to do their job and save our lives.”

Idahagbon alleged that Obaseki was raising a killer squad and had marked some of them for attacks.

The ex-Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice in the state said, “What we are seeing in the state now cannot stop some of us from holding back on our decision that Obaseki will be replaced. We are not deterred by these acts of harassments and attacks but he should be warned not to push us to the wall because if we are pushed to the wall we surely know what to do.”

But  Obaseki, who spoke through his   Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie, said the state chapter of the APC was peaceful until the EPM (Edo People’s Movement) commenced their “nefarious activities” across the state.

He said, “We are quite flustered that Comrade Adams Oshiomhole has not been able to rein in his people in the face of the reconstitution of the APC  National Reconciliation Committee tasked with restoring lasting peace in the party, both in the state and across the country.

“We are committed to peace and would do right by the people of Edo State by continually supporting all credible means to arrive at lasting peace in the state.”

Obaseki called on the Presidency and the Inspector-General of Police   Mohammed Adamu to caution Oshiomhole, Ize-Iyamu and “their cohorts in the EPM so that the destructive descent to violence does not erode the good legacies that have been built over the years by the APC in Edo State”.

Spokesman for the police in the state, DSP Chidi Nwabuzor, could not be reached for comments as of the time of  filing this report.