Ahead of the Edo State Governorship election slated for Saturday, September 21st, 2024, the state government disclosed that it has “uncovered plans to redeploy all the security officials attached to the Edo State Governor, His Excellency Governor Godwin Obaseki, in order to leave him without protection and render him vulnerable as we head into the election as well as on election day.”
The state government made the disclosure on Sunday afternoon through a Press Briefing addressed by the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare.Â
Also, Nehikhare stated that “despite all the appeals made to the police to end the indiscriminate arrest of chieftains of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), they have yet deployed some other squad of policemen from outside Edo State to begin massive arrest of PDP chieftains perceived to be politically strong in their various constituencies in order to pave the way for the manipulation of elections in those areas. This intimidation tactic is irresponsible and most reprehensible.”
According to Nehikhare,”our intelligence has also uncovered massive production of masks and police uniforms by agents of the All Progressives Congress (APC) to veil their thugs who they plan to deploy to disrupt voting processes in units and wards where they know they do not stand a chance of victory.”
The Commissioner alleged that a member of the House of Representatives “has engaged about 200 militants for the purpose of disrupting election materials and electoral officials in the riverine axis of the state beginning from Ologbo, Nikorogha, all the way to Siluko.
“We also understand that these militants have already been ferried into the state and lodged into various hotels. We are giving this information for the security agencies to act swiftly to arrest or dislodge these thugs and plans.”
Going further, Nehikhare alleerted that a serving Senator and his supporters have concluded plans “to take the ballot paper and all election materials into his premises and thumbprint all the ballot papers for APC, leaving other parties with no chances of getting fair votes.”
He appealed to President Bola Tinubu, to “order the security agencies, especially the police to stop the attacks on unarmed and harmless Edo people and Nigerians who have done nothing wrong except that they want a free, fair and credible election so that they can vote for the candidate of their choice.”
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