Edo state government discredits deputy governor's assassination attempt report

The Edo state government has discredited the claim by the state's deputy governor, Dr. Pius Odubu, that there was an attempt to assassinate him at a political gathering in Auchi on Saturday April 30th (Read here). All hasn't been well between the state governor, Adams Oshiomole and his deputy after the latter declared his intention to run for governor of the state in September this year.

In a statement released yesterday May 1st, the state Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Kassim Afegbua, said the state government condemned the incident but is however not happy at the hasty conclusion that it was an assassination attempt.

According to Afegbua, investigations by the state government revealed that the gunshots fired at the gathering resulted from an internal disagreement in the deputy governor's campaign organization. It described as lousy the conclusion that it was carried out by some hired assassins.

” It is instructive to note that the Deputy Governor was inside the secretariat building of the APC in the company of the Party Chairman in the Local Government, Alhaji Umoru Akokhia, addressing the delegates while thugs loyal to him who had become unruly fired gunshots at other APC loyalists who were outside protesting against his visit. We gathered authoritatively that the first shots were, in fact, fired by Odubu’s security details in an attempt to scare away the party faithful who were against the hoodlums imported to their domain by the Odubu Campaign Organisation, before thugs loyal to him fired at the party’s loyalists. It should be noted that among those who sustained injuries are APC loyalists who are presently receiving medical attention in the hospital. It is laughable that the Odubu Campaign Organisation will allege that the Deputy Governor, with full compliments of security details, was shot at yet no casualty was recorded on the other side and nobody apprehended. Given the above scenario, we find it lousy for anyone to impute assassination theory as propounded by the Odubu Campaign Organisation especially when investigations are still ongoing and the Police are yet to submit their findings on the fracas. A responsible campaign organisation should have waited for investigation reports before jumping into reckless conclusions.”