The Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), on Friday, insisted that its invaded secretariat along the Benin Airport Road remained its official secretariat as it holds the tenancy to the property, which it said belonged to a private individual.
Besides, the party noted that the way and manner the Edo State All Progressives Congress (APC), led by its State Chairman, Jaret Tenebe, acted on Thursday afternoon was an invitation to anarchy in the state and called on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to call Governor Monday Okpebholo and the APC to order before the situation degenerated.
Addressing a press conference in Benin on Friday, Edo State PDP Chairman, Dr Tony Aziegbemi, in the company of the party’s Secretary, Chris Nehikhare, and the Director General of the PDP Governorship Campaign Council for the September 21, 2024, gubernatorial election, Matthew Iduoriyenkewen, lamented that terror now reigned in the state.
Aziegbemi, who said that he was at the secretariat when the invading party came at about 1:31 pm on Thursday, said that he immediately put a call across to the Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Aideyan Police Station, but the DPO did not arrive at the secretariat until 2:42 pm from a distance of less than five minutes’ drive.
The PDP state chairman said that the property housing the PDP secretariat is owned by a private individual and wondered why the APC chairman did not toe the path of civilisation by contacting the landlord if indeed the APC had a subsisting seven-year tenancy agreement on the property.
Describing the invasion and ransacking of the PDP secretariat as “executive recklessness which points to one direction, anarchy,” Aziegbemi noted that “the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Edo State has continued its brigandage, illegality, and violent assault on democracy, and we are deeply worried that if unabated, it may snowball into a breakdown of law and order, leading to anarchy and chaos in the state.”
The distraught PDP State Chairman explained what happened in a press statement titled, “Criminal Trespass, Breaking and Entry, Stealing and Malicious Damage,” thus:
“At 1:31 pm yesterday, January 16, 2025, the APC, using several Hilux vans and other vehicles, led by Jarret Tenebe, deployed their thugs, backed by police officers from the Government House, to sack the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from its secretariat on Airport Road, Benin City, the Edo State capital.
“The entire operation was violent and brutal as has never been heard of or seen before, and sadly it lasted for more than an hour. The secretariat was vandalised, and there was wreckage and destruction everywhere. Banners and other materials were taken off and destroyed. Lives were put in danger, including mine as the Chairman of the PDP in Edo State. I was forcefully bundled out of my office with the help of Mr Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon Blessing Agbebaku, amidst brutal assault and violence against my person.
“No doubt, this is arguably the worst attack on democracy in any part of Nigeria since the nation’s return to democracy in 1999. Even military regimes before 1999 were not as violent or brutal against dissenting voices as the Okpebholo-led government since they took office on November 12, 2024.
“Today’s violent takeover of the PDP Secretariat by Okpebholo and the APC is a clear reflection of the reign of terror that the people of Edo State have witnessed over the past two months. We state unequivocally that we are the legitimate tenants of the said property. It is the same devious tactics deployed to sack and intimidate duly elected council chairmen and vice chairmen out of office, using horse whips and other dangerous weapons. It is the same pattern that is deployed in motor parks and markets, where thugs operating under the protection of the state government harass, intimidate, and extort transporters and traders daily without restraint.
“We must unequivocally state that Edo is at the precipice. Democracy in Edo State is on fire.
“Worst still, the police and other security agencies in the state who are supposed to put them in check appear to be either complacent or complicit.”
He therefore called “on the Federal Government, international agencies, civil society organisations, and other stakeholders to rein in Governor Okpebholo, who has become an unleashed force of lawlessness, and let him know the limits of his power as a governor and put an end to this executive rascality, illegality, brigandage, and brazen assault on democracy.
“Again, we warn that the wind currently blowing in Edo State is an ill-wind, which will blow no one any good,” Aziegbemi warned.
Shedding more light on the status of the property, Nehikhare said that Tenebe, who in 2020 was the Deputy State Chairman of the APC, was one of the parties that went to court to ask for permission to relocate the APC secretariat from the contentious secretariat to another location.
The Benin Division of the Appeal Court, Nehikhare noted, gave judgment allowing the APC to relocate its secretariat to another location off the Airport Road, and wondered how the property Tenebe asked the court to order to relocate from now suddenly became the APC secretariat.
It would be recalled that speaking to a cross-section of the media on Thursday after the invasion of the PDP secretariat, the Edo APC State Chairman, Tenebe, said that APC rented the property as its secretariat and had a tenancy agreement of seven years before the immediate past governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, converted the place to the PDP secretariat when he dumped the APC for the PDP in 2020.
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