Though Edo State Police Commissioner, Mr. Danmallam Mohammed, has cast doubts on what actually took place in the home of the All Progressives Congress (APC), National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole , has condemned the Saturday evening attack on his Benin residence.
The Police boss described the alleged attack as a lie, though the camp of State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and Oshiomhole continued to trade blame over the source of the attack.
APC said though Oshiomhole called for calm after what it described as “the apparent attempt on his life”, the party, through its spokesman, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, called on the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Mohammad Adamu and other relevant security outfits to investigate the ugly incident and prosecute the sponsors and attackers.
The party adds: “In Edo State, just as in any other state, everyone must be free to go about their normal and legitimate activities without harassment, intimidation, threat to life and property.
“It is clear that the sponsors of the attack are bent on causing crisis in the state in pursuit of their desperate and unpopular political interests. Human life is greater that anyone’s political ambition.
Meanwhile, the Deputy President of the Senate, Ovie Omo-Agege condemned the attack asking that the pepetrators must be fished out and dealt with to serve as a deterrent to others that political violence is not the best way to resolve conflicts, if any.
He described the development as callous, cowardly, inhumane and totally unacceptable that should be condemned by all.
Oshiomhole was reportedly at a friend’s birthday party when thugs besieged his Benin residence in Okorotun Street, GRA, on Saturday. The thugs were said to have shot sporadically into the air.
“Such criminal attack, remains utterly condemnable and illegal. Whatever their grievances, they should learn to explore dialogue rather than resort to violence.
” I call on the police to get to the root of the matter by prosecuting those involved in the act. It is my belief that the fine principles and ethos of democratic practice do have inbuilt mechanisms through which internal wranglings can be resolved without recourse to violence as it was the case in Edo State on Saturday.
“I would like to call on the parties involved to explore those options that would strengthen the party as entrenched in the constitution of the APC as that is the best way to move the state and the nation to the Next Level in which all citizens are expected to reap the dividends of the trust they reposed in the government led by President Muhammadu Buhari”, he stated.
Speaking after the incident, Oshiomhole was quoted as saying that the attackers and their sponsors want a war.
Addressing supporters, he said, according to media reports, “In a moment like this, it is not madness for madness because many of you I see here in 2007, you were already strong. During my second in 2012, you were already strong; Even at 2016, some of you were already deployed as party agent.
“These people want to create what has not happen for a very long time. They want war and want to cause crisis. They are boasting that they want to crush and crush people. Go and buy crushing machine.
“No man born of a woman that can change what God has said. And if God says, No, who can say yes? My own is don’t let them drag you out of the bathroom like Igbo man says and be running after them like the town naked mad men because we are not mad.
“If it comes to the ruffle ruffle that he wants, they don’t have the number. You know that when you start to tell lies, you will have to lie many times to sustain one lie.
“We will not condescend to their level. But, let me say this. It is clear, Nigeria is a free Country. There is freedom of association. Thee is freedom of worship. There is freedom of religion. There is freedom of expression. So, nobody in Nigeria can harass you. Just be the good guys that you are.
“My weapon which is the truth, is more powerful than the weapon of the arm forces in the world. Have I threatened any of you? I have ever sent any of you to prison. How many of you …have I ever said to any of you that if you do not follow me, I will send you to prison?
“…But, the tradition of Edo people is that if you do something and your father is not happy, he will call you home and say my son, don’t do this again.
“As a father or mother, maturity is the ability to change the habit that you are not happy. There is no wisdom to do as if you are an angel who has never sinned? Those who want to cast the first stone, may God bless them.