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By Ehichioya Ezomon

Save speculations, it’s difficult to determine who – between the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the September 21, 2024, Edo State governorship election, Senator Monday Okpebholo, and court-reinstated Deputy Governor of Edo State, Comrade Philip Shaibu – was the target of an armed attack about the entrance of the Benin Airport, in Benin City on Thursday, July 18, 2024.

However, it’s not as difficult or farfetched to decipher the motive for the attack: It’s for the possible elimination of one or both of the high-profile political figures that will surely determine the crucial governorship poll barely two months away.

While Shaibu escaped physically hurt in the mid-day (1:18pm) attack on the busy and populated area of the capital city, Okpebholo’s injured (with the degree of injury unknown as at the weekend), his Aide-de-camp (ADC), Inspector Akor Onu, was shot dead, and a couple of Police details, and several persons in Okpebholo’s motorcade were also wounded, with all the victims taken to hospitals for medical attention.

As Edo people, and Nigerians in general await the outcome of Police investigation – the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adegboye, was reportedly present at the airport, ostensibly to ensure compliance with an Abuja Federal High Court’s order to restore Shaibu’s security details – the attack would’ve had immense ramifications had Okpebholo or Shaibu, or both been killed in what concerned members of the public have dubbed a “failed assassination attempt” on two prominent Edo State citizens.

Sen. Okpebholo (APC, Edo Central) and Mr Shaibu boarded the same flight from Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city, and landed at the Benin airport amidst jubilation by thousands of their supporters – a normal scenario during  electioneering when political leaders fly into town.

There’s added significance to the occasion, as Shaibu’s coming into Edo following the Abuja court judgment, which nullified his April 8, 2024, impeachment by the Edo State House of Assembly, and reinstated him as the Deputy Governor of the state.

Shaibu’s impeached over alleged gross misconduct, stemming from his aspiration to succeed Governor Godwin Obaseki, who – floating his friend and Lagos-based business associate, Dr Asue Ighodalo, to succeed him in November 2024 – vehemently opposed Shaibu’s governorship bid, and accusingly engineered his impeachment based on a “lame and an ochestrated political vendetta,” according to Justice Kolawole Omotosho of the Abuja court that gave judgment to Shaibu on Wednesday, July 17.

Following alleged prevention of his “secured delegates” from the PDP-organised governorship primary in Benin City on February 22, 2024, Shaibu’s faction of the PDP conducted a parallel primary that returned him as the party candidate – an outcome rejected by the PDP national headquarters.

Shaibu’s since thrown his weight – including his campaign offices across Edo State, campaign vehicles and supporters – behind Okpebholo, who’s emerged as the main opposition contender for the governorship in September. And this has put him, Okpebholo and the APC in the crosshairs of Governor Obaseki and the PDP.

Even as he battles to regain his office from a tenacious Obaseki government, and reportedly appointed new aides, Shaibu – asked on Arise TV’s ‘Morning Show’ on Friday, July 19, about his relationship with Okpebholo – said his “spirit” has left the PDP, and that he’s “as good as being a member of APC,” adding, “the only thing is that I have not officially left PDP.”

“For now, I am PDP. But going forward, if I declare for APC, it means that I have declared full support for Okpebholo. I am as good as being a member of APC, I can tell you that. I have two legs in APC. The only thing is that I have not officially left PDP. I am an unofficial member of APC. My spirit has left PDP,” Shaibu said.

Thus, it’s no coincidence that Shaibu and Okpebholo took the same flight from Abuja, and landed at the Benin airport into a welcoming reception by their supporters. But convoying out of the airport was a perfect setting for their traducers to wreak havoc in an ambush by armed political thugs allegedly aided by operatives of the state government-controlled Edo Security Network (ESN).

A reporting by The Nation captured the eerily bloody confrontation: “Inspector Akor Onu, a security operative attached to the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State for the September 21 election, Senator Monday Okpebholo, has been shot dead in Benin by thugs.

“The attack took place during the victorious homecoming of the reinstated Edo Deputy Governor, Comrade Philip Shaibu. Others injured with the standard bearer of APC in Edo are on admission in an undisclosed hospital in Benin.

“Shaibu and Okpebholo, who flew in the same aircraft from Abuja, arrived Benin Airport around 1:18 p.m to a rousing welcome by their teeming supporters. They sang victory songs amid drumming and dancing, to celebrate Wednesday’s judgement of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which reinstated Edo Deputy Governor.

“As their convoy left the airport and linked the dualised Airport Road, thugs in a Toyota Sienna vehicle in front of the Miracle Centre of the Church of God Mission, started shooting sporadically at the vehicles of Shaibu, Okpebholo and others.

“The shooting led to the death of the police inspector, with many motorists, pedestrians and residents scampering to safety, causing confusion in the densely-populated neighbourhood. The reinstated Deputy Governor drove off speedily and headed for his nearby residence in the Government Reservation Area (GRA), Benin, and quickly moved to the various hospitals to empathised with the injured.

“The attack took place despite the presence at Benin airport of Edo Commissioner of Police, Funsho Adegboye, whose officers and men displayed bravery, but the thugs laid ambush for the convoy. Military personnel and other security operatives were quickly deployed in the area to prevent reprisal.”

The question isn’t, who did the attack, but who plotted and sponsored it? Aftermath of the deadly assault, Okpebholo’s legislative aide in charge of media and communication, Godswill Inegbe, allegedly fingered a former chieftain of the APC (names withheld) as leading the ambush to take out Okpebholo or Shaibu, or both in one fell swoop.

But the politician – who, as he’d resigned from the APC, predicted a “political tsunami” that he’s leading, and thereafter decamped to the PDP – denied involvement in the attack, claiming he’s out of Benin City during the incident, and that the allegation was to tarnish his image as a law-abiding citizen, who’d not engage in political violence.

Contrarily, can the Obaseki government, which instigated the impeachment of Shaibu – and had obtained a stay of execution of the Federal High Court order restoring Shaibu to his office – exonerate, and extricate itself from the attack on Okpebholo and Shaibu?

Rather than display shock over the attack, and extend sympathy and empathy to the victims, the Obaseki government was after Shaibu, claiming that in his bid to return to office, as mandated by the Abuja court, he’s going about attacking residents and destroying property in Benin City.

In a statement on July 18, the Commissioner for Communication and Orientation, Chris Nehikhare, alleged that Shaibu-led thugs had unleashed mayhem on innocent citizens “in the guise of enforcing the judgment reinstating him to office.”

“We want to reiterate that Shaibu will face the consequences of violence he has resorted to in pursuit of his aim to return to the Government House even when he is aware that a stay of execution of the judgement has been filed,” Nehikhare said.

(It’s trite that simply filing of an application for a stay of execution can’t vitiate a declarative judgment that has immediate force of law until the court applied/appealed to hears and grants the application.

As per Felix Osemwengie Isere, Esq., “The mere fact that Edo State House of Assembly or the Attorney General of Edo State has applied to a stay of execution of the judgement reinstating the former deputy governor, Philip Shaibu, does not stop the enforcement. It is only after the application has been heard and granted that the judgment can be enforced. What this means in a simpler term is that Philip Shaibu is the legally recognised deputy governor of Edo State today by law except the application for a stay of execution pending appeal they have filed and parading is granted by the court.)

Nehikhare advised the residents to remain calm and go about their lawful businesses, as the government had embarked on restoring peace to the state capital, with reports indicating that security had been beefed up at the premises of replacement Deputy Governor Godwins Omobayo, at Osadebey Avenue, Benin City, to forestall any (counter) attack on him.

It’s worthwhile to recall a viral video featuring an Edo PDP topshot and a director in the Ighodalo campaign organisation, making brazen and incendiary claims that the PDP would resort to beating up opposition members if they didn’t join the party, declaring that, “Who no wan hear, go kpeme” (die).

According to an APC supporter that reposted the video lately, “tragically, someone did ‘kpeme’ (die) yesterday (July 18) — none other than the Orderly of the gubernatorial candidate (of the APC).”

Did the Obaseki government and PDP condemn that flaming video and call the party chieftain to order? What about post-the inevitable happening; has the government and PDP deplored the attack on Okpebholo and Shaibu? Has PDP’s candidate Ighodalo criticised the assault, and commiserated with especially Okpebholo, his competitor and kinsman from Esan Central of Edo State?

In closing, let’s recall the United States President Joe Biden’s admonition in the wake of the July 13 failed assassination of former President Donald Trump, the Republican candidate in the Tuesday, November 5, 2024, General Election.

In his Remarks in an Address to the Nation on July 14, an assailed Biden – fending off calls by concerned Democrats to drop his reelection bid after his poor debate performance with Trump – said: “Yesterday’s shooting at Donald Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania calls on all of us to take a step back, take stock of where we are, how we go forward from here.

“My fellow Americans, I want to speak to you tonight about the need for us to lower the temperature in our politics and to remember, while we may disagree, we are not enemies. We’re neighbors. We’re friends, coworkers, citizens. And, most importantly, we are fellow Americans. And we must stand together.

“Tonight, I want to speak to what we do know: A former president was shot. An American citizen killed while simply exercising his freedom to support the candidate of his choosing.

“We cannot – we must not go down this road in America. We debate and disagree. We compare and contrast the character of the candidates, the records, the issues, the agenda, the vision for America.

“But in America, we resolve our differences at the ballot box. You know, that’s how we do it, at the ballot box, not with bullets. The power to change America should always rest in the hands of the people, not in the hands of a would-be assassin.

“You know, the path forward through competing visions of the campaign should always be resolved peacefully, not through acts of violence.”

Biden’s caution should resonate, and guide the campaigns for the governorship election in Edo State on September 21. Similar to what happened in Pennsylvania, a governorship candidate (Okpebholo) was shot at in Edo State on July 18. A Nigerian citizen (Inspector Onu) killed while simply performing his duty of a confidential assistant to Okpebholo, and several persons injured.

This is not who we’re, or should be. Let the gladiators in the Edo governorship lower the temperature in our politics and remember that, while they may disagree, they’re not enemies, they’re all Edolites, and Nigerians. They should settle their political differences at the ballot and not with bullets, and allow Edo voters to exercise their franchise on Election Day to decide who their Governor should be!

* Mr Ezomon, Journalist and Media Consultant, writes from Lagos, Nigeria.