Edo Speaker, Majority Leader detained by police in Benin

Jethro Ibileke/Benin

The police in Benin have arrested and detained the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Uyi Igbe and the Majority Leader of the House, Philip Shaibu, over the attack on Abdulrazak Momoh, the lawmaker representing Etsako West constituency 1, who is lying critically ill in the hospital.

Meanwhile, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), has invited the duo to appear before it in Abuja next week Monday. The reasons for the invitation is unclear, but the All Progressives Congress (APC) raised an alarm over alleged plot by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-led Federal Government to incarcerate all loyalists of Governor Adams Oshiomhole.

Momoh whose seat was declared vacant by the House in July, was allegedly attacked by thugs after he defied the instruction of security men at the at the gate of Edo Legislative quarters not to enter the quarters by scaling the perimeter fence.

Following the attack, the leadership of the PDP in the state accused the Majority Leader Shaibu and other APC lawmakers of masterminding the attack.

Mr. Shaibu however rebuffed the allegation, describing it as arrant nonsense.

As at the time of filing this report, the Speaker, Uyi Igbe, Shaibu and another lawmaker, Folly Ogedegbe, who were invited to the state police command headquarters by the state Commissioner of Police Foluso Adebanjo, were still detained.

Other APC lawmakers thronged the command headquarters in solidarity with their colleagues. Efforts made to speak with the Commissioner of Police on the issue proved abortive.

The Majority Leader, Philip Shaibu who spoke to journalists at the command headquarters, said, “We came on our own volition, they have kept us here for over three hours for a matter we know nothing about. You can see the intimidation. When the PDP lawmakers including Momoh forcefully broke into the Assembly complex, the police did not invite them to talk or arrest them. All the court orders that were issued against them, none were obeyed, the police never did anything to enforce court orders. But you can see we have been detained here since for an issue we know nothing about.

“Secondly, the EFCC has invited us to Abuja on Monday. But Nigeria is currently being embarrassed in South Africa for money laundering perpetrated by the Federal Government, and the EFCC has not done anything. Stella Oduah is still moving freely round the country. This is an attempt to intimidate and eliminate all Oshiomhole’s loyalists before the elections.

“But the Federal government must be careful. The EFCC is not arresting those people who stole our money but they are inviting us when we don’t award contracts. It is a plan to use the Federal might. The president should talk to his people because we cannot be intimidated. They are using the agencies of government wrongly because they have a PDP godfather. Oduah was not arrested, they cannot cover up those mess and start inviting innocent lawmakers to Abuja.

“This is the 18th time I have been going to EFCC. We are still here for what we don’t know anything about. The Court warned Momoh not to go near the quarters, he went there and the police did not do anything about that. These are plans to eliminate us but it will not work. The Presidency must be careful, everybody must obey the laws of the land else Nigeria will become a banana republic,” he said.

Reacting to the incident, the APC in a statement signed by its Publicity Secretary, Godwin Erhahon, said, “We are aware of the plots by the PDP to arrest, maim, and eliminate those perceived to be loyalists of Governor Oshiomhole. The lawmaker who was beaten went there with thugs and it has nothing to do with our lawmakers. Why are they being arrested by the police?

“But we want to warn that any attempt to intimidate our people in Edo state will be resisted. The PDP cannot use Federal might to hunt our people. We are still battling Boko Haram, let us not face another war in Edo state, it might be too much for Jonathan to handle,” he declared.