Edo police stop PDP faction’s office commissioning

THE crisis rocking Edo State chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday took a new dimension as an attempt by the Dr. Samuel Ogbemudia and Admiral Okhai Akhigbe’s faction of the party to commission its state secretariat situated at No 41 Siluko Road , Benin –City was aborted by the police who claimed that they were acting on orders from above. The police, led by a very senior police officer and complemented by a detachment from the MOPOL 5, Benin , fired canisters to disperse the party faithful who were already seated as early as 9 a.m. for the commissioning ceremony. Scores of people mostly women were injured as they ran for their lives. Journalists were not also spared as correspondents of Channels Television and Galaxy Television had their cameras seized by the policemen while the GSM telephone handset belonging to the news editor of the Observer Newspapers, Mr. Matthew Okhagha, was forcibly taken away from him. However, the seized items were however returned to the journalists. Addressing journalists later in his residence, factional state chairman of the PDP, Mr. Sunny Uyigue, accused Edo State police commissioner, Mr. Kachi Udochi, of playing partisan politics and wondered his interest in the politics of the PDP in the state. He said that his faction of the party wanted to hold a consultative meeting at its secretariat after it had obtained a court ruling in its favour just as he disclosed that the commissioner of police was served with the court process. Also speaking, a leader of the PDP faction from Estako Central Local Government, Mr.Fidelis Omoerah, said his group did not need a permit from the police to hold their meeting just as he cited a Supreme Court ruling which says that the citizen do not need to obtain a permit for any lawful gathering. Meanwhile, the chairman of the PDP in the state, Chief Dan Orbih, has commended Edo police for aborting the faction’s secretariat commissioning. “We learnt that Uyigue claimed that he is the chairman of the PDP and wanted to open a factional secretariat so as to justify his action. Our people, that is the real PDP members in the state, mobilized to storm there. But we thank God that the police got wind of it and moved in to stop any bloodshed. However, we are satisfied that security agents in the state did not support the illegality that they wanted to perpetrate by stopping the meeting.”