Ben Ogbemudia, Abuja
Edo State Deputy Governor, Rt. Hon. Comrade Philip Shaibu, on Thursday afternoon, escaped an assassination in Benin City, the state capital.
During the attack, a policeman attached to the All Progressives Congress governorship candidate, Senator Monday Okpebolo, was killed while three other Mobile police officers also attached to the APC flagbearer’s were seriously injured.
Okpebolo and other dignitaries were part of the crowd that went to the Airport to welcome Shaibu back to Benin, the state capital.
The alleged assassination attempt on Shaibu occurred barely a day after an Abuja Federal High Court overruled his impeachment by the state House of Assembly and ordered his reinstatement.
The attempt on the life of the newly reinstated deputy governor and other VIPs, including supporters who were at the Benin Airport to receive him, was carried out at the Airport exit gate roundabout, near Faith Mediplex in Benin.
The attack, alleged to have been orchestrated by state-sponsored thugs and members of the Edo State Security Network (ESSN), witnessed sporadic shootings that left the cheering crowd who had come to welcome the reinstated deputy governor back to Benin, scampering for their dear lives to escape being hit by stray bullets.
It however took the efforts and intervention of security personnel to repel the alleged assailants and bring the situation under control, leaving the alleged state-sponsored thugs and local vigilantes to run away from the spot and give room to the rallying crowd to reconvene.
Sadly, police officer attached to the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo, whose motorcade rode alongside the deputy governor’s convoy, lost his life in the unprovoked brutal attack, with several officers and supporters wounded.
