Edo gubernatorial election slated for Saturday, September 19, 2020 is really setting new records in the history of elections in Nigeria.
Since the campaigns kicked off, no day ever passes without throwing up fresh worries over the coming election. It is safe to say that the election has become unique in more ways than one.
But what seems to have caught the attention of many Nigerians is the number of accidents involving or targeting only the big shots in their campaign train.
First, it was Governor Godwin Obaseki’s convoy on August 14, 2020, in which he was said to have escaped assassination.
Now, it is Adams Oshiomhole’s convoy that was involved in what the All Progressives Congress (APC) strongly believes was an assassination attempt. While Oshiomhole escaped unhurt, two policemen on his entourage were not so lucky.
Pundits have condemned the frequent loss of lives as a result of a few individuals’ ambitions. They noted that it is unfortunate that people do not learn any lesson in what happens around them.
The media is awash with stories of how policemen attached to politicians consistently pay the supreme price. After they die, their poor families begin to experience real hardship as the politicians, who their bread winners died to protect, move on with their lives and totally forget, because out of sight is always out of mind.
The vibrations coming from Edo is scary. The two major political parties involved in the coming election could be said to be toying with the head of a cobra, mouthing assassination as though the battle for governorship was everything there is in life. And come to think of it, all of them alleging assassination had in the past wined and dined together when they were in the same political party or when they had cause to work together, and knowing the life of politicians, their coming together again is not ruled out giving their rolling stone nature and the principle of no permanent friend or enemy but permanent interest.
The probing questions remain, why then must policemen continue to die for politicians? Why must youths sacrifice their lives for politicians who have mortgaged their future? At every election, youths who serve as thugs are killed and everything about them forgotten even by those who hired them.
Recently, Edo State Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu had alleged that there was a plot to assassinate high-profile personalities in the state.
Speaking at a press conference in Benin City, the Deputy Governor called on President Muhammadu Buhari to charge security agencies to “do their work because Edo will not be a theatre of war if these things are dealt with.”
Shaibu had claimed that “We have intelligence that some individuals are in Edo State and their assignment is to come and assassinate some known individuals in the state.
“So, I am hereby bringing to the notice of the general public that these people are in town and we’ve communicated to the security agencies about their activities and why they are in town.”
“For us, we will continue to appeal to our people not to look for trouble, not to disturb any programme. We are law-abiding. We have a duty to protect lives and property; that we will continue to do,” he added.
Recall that a recent meeting at the Presidential Villa, Abuja between President Buhari and Oshiomhole generated a controversy. The PDP alleged that the meeting was to perfect rigging plans for the broom party.
Within that period also, the umbrella party had alleged that it obtained a video wherein Oshiomhole and Professor Ibrahim Gambari, chief of staff to the President, were in talks over how to “take care” of certain powerful elements in the PDP in order to have a smooth sail in the September 19 poll.
Since last month, it has been one accident or the other, which are being interpreted as the handiwork of political foes.
On August 13, Obaseki’s campaign train was alleged to have been attacked by hoodlums allegedly stationed in Ward 10, Apana, Uzairue, Etsako West Local Government Area, where Oshiomhole comes from. Reports had it that the attack lasted for over five minutes as the security agents attached to the governor and the campaign train engaged in a gun battle with the hoodlums.
Obaseki said of the attack: “You see what has happened now, Oshiomhole allegedly hired thugs to attack us so that we will not campaign in Apana.”
On August 31, the governor again narrowly escaped death at Erua village near Jehovah’s Witnesses International Headquarters in Uhunmwode Local Government Area of the state.
On September 1, Oshiomhole was said to have escaped death by a whisker. He lost two of his aides in the auto crash.
Oshiomhole was on his way to Usen in Ovia South-West Local Government Area.
It was gathered that a trailer rammed into the travelling campaign convoy, hitting the back-up vehicle that the police were riding in.
Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu said the accident was a plot to kill Oshiomhole.
He emphatically said: “I want to show my deepest sympathies to households, buddies, and all who knew the two distinctive policemen we lost in the tragic and disturbing crash involving the convoy of Comrade Adams Oshiomhole travelling with different leaders to a marketing campaign occasion in Usen, Ovia South East LGA.”
According to him, “The circumstances of the crash have been certainly curious and have left us deeply involved, because the truck liable for the crash, in keeping with witness accounts of these within the convoy and different street customers, appeared to have intentionally rammed into the convoy.”
Twice in one week, the Benin monarch, Oba Ewuare ll, expressed his concern over the heightened political violence ahead of the September 19 gubernatorial election in Edo.
Last Wednesday, the monarch called on political actors in the state to prevail on their foot-soldiers and supporters to stop heating up the polity.
Oba Ewuare ll made the call at a peace meeting with the chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC), the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and their governorship candidates in his palace.
“Please let the shooting stop. There is a way you can communicate through your foot-soldiers and they will listen to you,” he said.
“The purpose of this meeting is to strongly appeal to politicians to control the youths and thugs that are against one another. I am not concerned about the sides they are but they are all one family,” he said.
The highly-rated crown head further noted that, “Family can quarrel but there must be resolution and that is what I want us to achieve today. I look at you all as family, as part of the palace family and I cannot have all of you fighting against one another. I have been harbouring a whole lot of unhappiness and the state has been in the news for some time for the wrong reasons.”
“I want to ask the political actors in Edo State, why are you all doing this? The office is four years, why do you want lives to be lost? Why are you arming thugs? At the end of the day the thugs keep those guns with them,” he queried.
“We must show to develop countries that Edo State can surprise them. Please, let the shooting stop,” he added.
Recall that before Governor Obaseki eventually dumped the APC, the Oba had made several attempts to reconcile him and Oshiomhole without success. The monarch was recently quoted as saying that he was still in shock that despite his efforts at reconciling the two politicians, they have stuck to their guns, hence the heightened apprehension as the election approaches.
