Edo Election: Police Has Morphed Into An Armed Wing of APC – Obaseki

The Deputy Director-General of the Asue/Ogie Campaign Council, Pedro Obaseki, has accused the Police of aiding the All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the Edo governorship election.

Pedro Obaseki alleged that there are plans by the APC to use the Police to rig the September 21 election.

Speaking in an interview with Arise TV on Friday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) stated that most of the party’s supporters were arrested by the police.

“This is also a situation where we’ve raised alarms that the APC have procured numerous police uniforms so as to dress as policemen on the election day. And to just buttress that, two days before the coming of the IG to Benin, three days ago, a contestant in the gubernatorial primaries of the APC, Mr. Blessing Agbomere was paraded with his APC hoodlums where all of them were wearing all the APC caps.

“But he was dressed particularly in an official police uniform with the rank of a CSP, and making spurious statements, statements that are designed to disturb public peace. We had to bring this to the notice of everybody since the police have refused to do anything.

“In the last three weeks, the Nigerian police, in gestapo style, have busted the homes of chieftains of the PDP, carted them away to unknown locations in total violations of their rights and not stopping there. The police can arrest anybody if they so wish, but they cannot take then to places where nobody knows and hold them illegally, unlawfully.

“So, we were screaming that first we will sign, but the police must come to the table with clean hands. Anybody who wants to come to must come to it with clean hands. So, the police has morphed into an armed wing of the APC in the state. So we are scared that if we sign a peace accord, we will be endorsing the very very unethical positioning of the police as an armed wing,” Obaseki said.

The Deputy DG of Ighodalo‘s campaign council noted that the PDP cannot allow the APC to see themselves as above the law.

“We cannot at this point allow the APC to see themselves above the law- that is not true, we won’t let that happen. Edo people are not scared, we are ready for the elections because we are the ones on ground. So, they are the ones trying to hound our people, disrespect the rule of law. That is the situation here because they know that they have a perpetually unelectable candidate,” Obaseki added.