Edo poll: Oshiomhole accuses South-South governors of hiring militants

The Governor of Edo State, Adams Oshiomhole, has accused some governors in the South-South of importing militants to rig the September 28 governorship election in the state.

Oshiomhole, who spoke when he received the Inspector-General of Police, Mr. Ibrahim Idris, at the Government House on Friday, said about 8,000 militants from some South-South states had been registered for the poll.

He said the decision to bring in militants to the state “in order make peaceful election impossible” was because the governors were unable find local thugs to help them perpetrate violence.

He said, “In line with my tradition, I have always tried to speak out on any matter that I am worried about. I first raised this alarm on the eve of INEC Continuing Voters Registration exercise, an exercise that has been designed to register those who have become 18 between the last registration and the current one.

“But these criminals who are determined to perpetrate violence and deny us the beauty of a peaceful election, unable to find local participants have chosen to import these militants with the support of two or so of my brothers. When I say brothers, I mean brother governors. It does not matter if I disagree with them. They are my brothers.”‎

But the state chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party described the governor’s allegation as not only false but an indictment on the security agencies.

The state chairman of the PDP, Chief Dan Orbih, who spoke to our correspondent on the telephone, said, “It is unfortunate that we have an outgoing governor of the state who has decided to state a lie just to achieve his political purpose. We know very well that what the governor was telling the IG is not true.

“For me, he was indicting the security agencies right in front of the IG because if you can bring in 8,000 people from outside Edo State and they all found their way into Edo State without the security agencies ‎watching their movement, it means that nobody is safe in Edo State and it is a big indictment on the security agencies.”

The IGP has, however, restated the commitment of the police towards a credible election.

He said, “This governorship election, I think is the first, apart from the Rivers election which has been postponed that we are going to carry out. So, we are very serious about this election.

“The men (policemen deployed in the state for the election) are going to report about three days to the election date and this will enable them to take care of most of the flash points in the state. We expect that on election day we are not going to record any problem.”

– punch