Four months to the 2023 general elections, high scale violence has taken over the political landscape in Nigeria.
Checks by DAILY POST show that Ebonyi, Zamfara and Kaduna States are the epicenter of violence against opposition political parties. The trio are all All Progressives Congress, APC, governed States.
These are happening in spite of the peace accord signed by all the presidential candidates in Abuja, the nation’s capital, under the watchful eyes of the National Peace Committee (NPC) co-led by former Head of State, General Abudulsami Abubakar; Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar II; Cardinal John Onayeikan; Bishop Hassan Kukah and other eminent statesmen with the objective of supporting efforts at ensuring free, fair and credible elections in Nigeria.
The APC Presidential candidate, Ahmed Bola Tinubu was represented during the accord signing by his running mate, Kashim Shettima.
Many Nigerians are already worried that the situation could worsen as the elections draw near and may eventually threaten the credibility of the polls.
EBONYI
Ebonyi State, South-East Nigeria is currently a theatre of the absurd. The State has been peaceful until November 2020 when the State Governor, David Umahi announced his defection from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, to the All Progressives Congress, APC.
The Governor, though adjudged as one of the best performing Governors in the country in terms of infrastructure, is being accused of doing everything to suppress and silence every opposition, including members of his former party, PDP.
There is tension in the State known as Salt of the Nation, with the government-owned Ebubeagu security operatives in the centre of the storm.
Opposition politicians in the State say the Ebubeagu operatives rather than go after killer herdsmen and other criminal elements, the main reason they were formed by the South-East Governors, they have become notorious for hunting and hurting anyone opposed to the Governor.
members of the opposition passing through one form of harrowing experience or the other.
The members of the Peter Obi support group, popularly known as ‘Obedients’ have not been spared either. The popular one-million man march being organized the group has been sailing until smoothly until it got to the turn of Ebonyi State.
Reports show that Ebonyi was the first State in the entire country where the Obidients were first attacked and tear-gassed, with the State Government coming out to say they refused to pay for a venue for their rally.
However, just early this week, Ebonyi started boiling again with the reported abduction of Mr. Linus Okorie, the Labour Party Senatorial candidate for Ebonyi South, Umahi’s zone.
Okorie, a former member of the House of Representatives, was whisked away by the Ebubeagu security operatives.
As uproar grew, he was handed over to the police, who said the ex-lawmaker had been on wanted list. But the manner of his arrest has drawn the ire of the members of the public, including civil society organizations.
First to react were some women and youths from his community, who barricaded roads leading in and out of Onicha community.
The protesters carried placards with the following inscriptions; “No movement until we see Hon. Linus. Onicha will be too hot for everybody.”
In a swift reaction, the Commissioner of Police, Ebonyi State command, CP Aliyu Garba, acknowledged Okorie’s arrest.
Garba, in a statement signed and issued to newsmen in Abakaliki by the PPRO, Chris Anyanwu, said: “It is also pertinent to mention that Linus Abaa Okorie has a pending case in which he is implicated in a drug-related offence, where the suspects purported to be his agents were arrested for hard drug sales and use at his City Hub Inn, Mile 50, Abakaliki. Case was later transferred to the NDLEA for further necessary actions.”
The State government also reacted through the Commissioner of Information and State Orientation, Mr Uchenna Orji, declaring that Okorie is currently cooling-off at the police net to answer for the various crimes he (Okorie) committed.
He accused the ex-lawmaker of circulating fake news and harbouring illicit drug traffickers in his club facility.
According to him: “Okorie was arrested in connection with serial crimes allegedly committed by him and the complicity of his club facility – the City Hub in promoting sundry crimes especially in peddling hard drugs and other illicit substances.”
Governor Umahi also exonerated Ebubeagu security operatives of having a hand in the purported torture and abduction of Okorie, saying the Ebubeagu operatives are trained and have the right by law to arrest any erring person in the society.
As of the time of this report, Okorie has been charged to court and remanded in Correctional Centre. He was arraigned in court on a five count-charge, bordering on fake news, murder, harbouring drug traffickers and two other charges.
Prior to Okorie’s arrest saga, Mrs. Ann Agom-Eze, who is laying claim to the APC Senatorial ticket for the zone, has also been crying out over threat to her life.
Agom-Eze and Umahi are in a fierce battle over who is the rightful candidate of the party, especially as Umahi was still seeking the presidential ticket of the party long before the senatorial primary was held.
Reacting to the development, the lead counsel to the defendant, Mr. Chika Nomeh, who spoke to newsmen shortly after the court sitting linked his client’s ordeal to the senatorial election.
He said, “There is a judgement of the Federal High Court by Honourable Justice Ekwo, that restrained the Nigeria Police and the state government from arresting Linus Okorie, and the judgement is still subsisting on the same subject matter.
“We raised an objection, which we were overruled. The aim of the charges is to keep him (Okorie) behind the bars. Our client is the leading senatorial candidate of Labour Party, LP, for Ebonyi South senatorial zone. The essence of these things is to weaken him and his supporters, but at the end of the day, the law will take its cost,” he stated.
While the dusts raised by Okorie’s case were yet to settle, the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance, APGA, Prof Benard Odoh, also alleged that he narrowly escaped assassination by suspected hoodlums in Izzi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State.
Odoh, who narrated his ordeal to newsmen in Abakaliki, said he received a distressed call from his supporters that the council chairman of Izzi LGA barred him from coming or campaigning in Izzi land.
According to him: “We have a visit to Izzi LGA because Izzi is part of Ebonyi State. We have our supporters in Izzi because it is one of the 13 LGAs of the State. We have our campaign office there.
“As early as 6:00 a.m. this morning, I started receiving distress calls. One of our coordinators called and said that the chairman of Izzi LGA called and warned him that no event will take place in the local government, that he is under pressure from the State government.
“The DPO also called and raised the same alarm, that he is under enormous pressure that we shouldn’t come. I’m the gubernatorial candidate of APGA in Ebonyi, and I’m in this race to govern everybody in the State, therefore, if I can’t go to Izzi, then it means that, I’m not qualified to stand election.
“On reaching Izzi LGA, we were confronted by Ebubeagu operatives. They shot at one of our cars, you can see it and the glass shattered. We went there with official security men, the police, the DSS, together with our campaign team.
“Governor David Umahi can’t force everyone, he should allow the people of the State to choose for themselves. This is not how to run democracy. We have the right to reach to our people.
“We are reaching out to the public to be aware, this is what has happened today. Thank God, nobody was injured but serious gunshot injuries on our cars.
“In Ezza South last week, they confronted us there. Two days ago, we inaugurated our support team, and they were also there. This can’t be the way to get into government house in 2023,” he lamented.
That is not all. The gubernatorial candidate of the PDP in Ebonyi State, Ifeanyi Chukwuma Odii, just yesterday, Friday, raised the alarm over increased insecurity and killings in the State, ahead of the forthcoming general election.
Odii, who expressed worries over the recent threat to security in the State, especially in his Onicha LGA, called on the Federal Government led by President Muhammadu Buhari and the Inspector-General of Police to wade into the situation.