Edo Election Tribunal: PDP alleges attempt to arrest star witnesses
The Edo State Chapter of the People Democratic Party (PDP) on Tuesday, alleged that there was an attempt by security operatives to arrest one of the party’s star witnesses in the Governorship election which resumes sitting on Wednesday.
In a viral video which had the candidate of the party in the September 21 election, Asue Ighodalo and the lead counsel to Ighodalo and the PDP, Ken Mozia and another party faithful, a plain cloth operative was trying to make an arrest and he was being thwarted.
An individual believed to be a party faithful in the video said that the counsel and the witnesses were going through what the situation could be at the Tribunal on Wednesday in the conference room of a hotel.
He said “All of a sudden, one of the security operatives said that the EFCC want to arrest witnesses of Ighodalo who are supposed to be in court on Wednesday in the first public hearing.
“They had no papers, they had no warrant of arrest, they had nothing and they just presented an identity card. Who does that? And taking into the fact that it is like reinforcing brazen criminality
“Ighodalo was even diplomatic and he let them to understand the enormity of what they are doing. The Nigerian Security Services and the EFCC cannot be an offshoot of a political party or people who want to pervert justice. So they are doing this on the eve of the case.
“These witnesses are not on the run. There is no invitation prior to this time asking these people to report anywhere. They just came and there are three young who now went back to their vehicle and left the whole place in chaos.
An official of the hotel said to be owned by a popular politician in the stage said that the operatives said they were on investigation and that who they were looking for was not a lodger in the hotel. He said that was how they now went into the conference hall of the hotel which led to the uproar.
The Publicity Secretary of the State Caretaker Committee, Chris Nehikhare, described the act as disgraceful, noting EFCC has been unleashed on their witnesses to do the hatchet job.
He said, “It is disgraceful that Edo State government has been reduced to this. Where state powers are abused and in some cases act as the enforcement arm of the thugs.”
But a state government official said that what transpired in the video had nothing to do with the state government.
The official said, “What happened had nothing to do with the state government. The PDP is bringing us into the issue but it has nothing to do with us.
An EFFC official in reply to a text message, said, “I don’t think it is EFFC.”
