Concerns about the safety of the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, Adams Oshiomhole in Benin, the Police have beefed up security around his Okorotun residence in the Edo State capital on Saturday.
It was learnt that despite the tight security mounted at the Benin Airport last Friday to prevent mobilised political thugs from attacking the former Edo State governor, the thugs were still able to hauls stones at his convoy.
But that was only the first hurdle, as the APC national chairman found it difficult to access his house. The Okorotun Street was blocked on both ends with two Edo State Waste Management trucks.
Some tyres of the trucks were deflated to make it impossible for anyone to tow them.
Besides, it was gathered that there was real threat of explosive devices to be hauled at the APC national chairman’s premises on Saturday night, even as credible sources disclosed that there was a plot to burn one of the trucks and hang it on Oshiomhole.
Following the threat, the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, was said to have directed the Edo State Commissioner of Police, Jimeta Lawal, to beef up security around Oshiomhole’s house.
Consequently, the commissioner, according to sources, complied with the IGP directive and personal visited the APC national chairman’s house to assess the security situation.
This is even as Oshiomhole was said to have been inundated with telephone calls by well wishers seeking to enquire about his safety.
But on Sunday morning, one of the two trucks used to block access to his residence had been burnt by yet-to-identified persons.
Meanwhile, the Edo State government has denied involvement in the attacks on the APC national chairman at the airport and the siege to his residence.
“We don’t know anything about these, our concern is that the national chairman came to Edo State and did not inform the government about his presence.
“He is the national chairman of our party and courtesy demands that he informs the government about his presence and like I said before, the state government does not have anything to do with the airport incident,” Governor Godwin Obaseki Special Adviser on Media and Communication Strategy, Crusoe Osagie said.
Oshiomhole was in Benin at the weekend to attend the burial ceremony of Cecilia Agbonyinma, mother of former Egor/Ikpoba-Okah Constituency House of Representatives member, Ehiozuwa Agbonyinma.
