Benin – The Inspector General of Police, Mr Solomon Arase, has taken over investigation into the alleged assassination attempt on the life of Deputy Governor of Edo, Dr Pius Odubu.
He was allegedly attacked in Auchi, Etsako West Local Government Area of the state.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr Chris Ezike, disclosed this after meeting with representatives of 20 political parties in Benin on Thursday.
The meeting, which was at the instance of the police, had in attendance the All Progressives Congress (APC), and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ahead of the Sept. 10 gubernatorial election in the state.
Also present were the state DSS Director, Mr Ibrahim Haliru; the Commandant of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Mr Walter Akubuiroh, and Resident Electoral Commissioner (INEC), Mr Sam Olumekun.
Suspected thugs had on Saturday staged the attack during a visit by the deputy governor to delegates of the All Progressives Congress at the party’s secretariat in the area.
Seven persons, including a policeman and an operative of the Department of State Security, were said to have been injured during the incident.
While the campaign organisation of Odubu, who is a gubernatorial aspirant of APC, alleged that the deputy governor was the target of the attack, the State Government maintained that the claim appeared false and hasty.
But Ezike explained that the IGP resolved to set up a high-powered team of policemen from the Force Criminal and Investigative Department to unravel the circumstances surrounding the reported attack, in the interest of justice.
According to him, “I have said that we will do the investigation. At the end of investigation, we are also going to have the courage to tell the world the result of our investigation.
“I want to ask for caution; when we deal with very sensitive matters, we should not jump to the conclusion before the matter is investigated.
“The correct situation is that the Inspector General, this afternoon (Thursday), directed that a high-powered team from the force CID should come and take over the matter.
“It will be in the overall interest of justice that we allow the team to do their work and then come out with the result of investigation.”
When asked if the police made any arrest during Tuesday fracas at the Edo State House of Assembly, Ezike said, “Something happened in the hallowed chambers; the hallowed chambers belong to the honourable members.
“So, I doubt if it will be fair to be asking the commissioner of police about an incident that took place in the hallowed chambers. My job is to ensure the security of the House of Assembly and that I did.”
The commissioner noted that the stakeholders’ meeting was aimed at assessing past electoral challenges, including the use of thugs and illegal firearms in order to acheive violence-free election.
“You must continue to engage. If you identify the problems, you are halfway to solving the problems. If we have identified electoral violence, we have identified the bracket from where it comes.
“We have also identified that the stakeholders need to be engaged to solve the problems, you will then begin to understand the essence of this meeting.
Earlier, the resident electoral commissioner said the commission had improved its operations through an upgrade of technology.
This, according to him, includes the use of e-tracking to monitor polling.
He also said that INEC would begin the distribution of the old Permanent Voter Cards soon. (NAN)