The Edo State Government has said the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Peter Obi, should have informed the state authorities before visiting the state, where he and other leaders of the African Democratic Congress were allegedly attacked by gunmen on Tuesday.
Edo State Commissioner for Information, Kassim Afegbua, made the remarks on Wednesday, February 25, during an appearance on Channels Television’s Politics Today programme.
Afegbua maintained that Obi, as a politically exposed person, owed the state government the courtesy of notifying it ahead of his visit.
“But because Obi is a politically exposed person, we would expect that he would extend the courtesy of informing the government of the day,” Afegbua said.
The commissioner also addressed a controversial statement made by Governor Monday Okpebholo last year in which he appeared to suggest that Obi needed to seek clearance before entering the state. Afegbua said the governor’s remarks were misunderstood.
“People misinterpreted what Governor Okpebholo meant when he made the statement in July last year, to the extent that anytime Peter Obi wants to come to Edo, he should please inform the state government,” he said.
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On the attack itself, Afegbua maintained the Edo State government’s position that the incident was an internal ADC affair rather than an externally orchestrated assault.
“What happened in Edo should be located within the ambit of the ADC — one factional group of the ADC versus another faction of the ADC,” the commissioner said.
The ADC has firmly rejected this characterisation, calling the attack an assassination attempt and accusing the ruling APC of political terrorism.
It has announced plans to report the incident to the ECOWAS Court of Human Rights and diplomatic missions.
Obi’s camp has also dismissed the suggestion that the violence was internally driven, with the National Coordinator of the Obidient Movement, Yunusa Tanko, describing the incident as a clear assassination attempt after armed individuals allegedly trailed the group from the ADC secretariat to Odigie-Oyegun’s residence and opened fire.