THE recent brazen assassination attempt on former Anambra State Governor Mr. Peter Obi and elder statesman Chief John Odigie-Oyegun in Benin City is not merely a “clash of hoodlums,” as the state would have us believe.
It is the predictable, violent climax of a coordinated campaign of state-sponsored intimidation, engineered from the highest corridors of power in Abuja down to the Osadebe Avenue government house in Edo.
*A Pattern of State-Sanctioned Thuggery*
From the scorched earth of Lagos to the bullet-riddled gates of Benin, the footprint of the All Progressives Congress (APC) is unmistakable.
In Lagos, ADC supporters have seen their peaceful gatherings invaded, their canopies shredded, and their dignity trampled under the boots of thugs who operate with the quiet nod of a governor more concerned with partisan purity than the constitutional right to associate.
In Edo, the mask has finally slipped. We must remember that in July 2025, Governor Monday Okpebholo issued an unprecedented and illegal decree: that Peter Obi—a free citizen of a federal republic—could not enter Edo State without his personal “clearance.”
Okpebholo’s ominous warning that he “cannot guarantee Obi’s security” was not a statement of fact; it was a veiled threat. When a governor tells a political rival that his safety is at risk, he is not predicting the future—he is authorizing it.
The Burden of Blood: Tinubu’s Rudderless Nigeria
While President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his disciples obsess over 2027 and the crushing of opposition voices, the Nigeria they claim to lead is disintegrating. It is the height of moral depravity to deploy “organized thugs” to disrupt political meetings while the following tragedies define the daily lives of Nigerians.
The reign of rerror has remained unprecedented.
Boko Haram, ISWAP, and the emerging Lakurawa cult continue to slaughter innocent citizens in the North, while Fulani terrorists turn the Middle Belt into a killing field.
How about the darkness of failure? As political canopies are torn down in the South, the national grid continues its habitual collapse, leaving millions in absolute darkness while President Tinubu is quietly enjoying Aso Rock N10 billion solar energy package!
While the elite plot assassinations, the average Nigerian is being dehumanized by decrepit roads, a paralyzed medical system, and a cost of living that has turned survival into a luxury.
Ambition vs. The Value of Life
President Tinubu and Governor Okpebholo must be reminded: Your worthless political ambitions are not worth a single drop of innocent Nigerian blood. The attempt to frame this as an “internal crisis” or to use “victim-blaming” tactics against veterans like Senator Rowland Owie—who has served this nation since 1979—is an insult to the intelligence of the Edo people and the Nigerian populace.
To suggest that a leader would attack his own maternal relative, Chief Oyegun, is a level of disinformation so clumsy it could only be born of desperation.
The ADC’s decision to head to the ECOWAS Court is a vote of no confidence in a domestic judiciary perceived to be under the thumb of partisan interests. We call on international democratic observers to see Nigeria for what it is becoming under this administration: a “republic of fear” where the state protects the aggressor and criminalizes the victim.
Nigeria cannot be a country where the only thing that works efficiently is the machinery of political violence. The Tinubu administration must decide if it wants to lead a nation or rule a graveyard.
The ADC and the people of Nigeria will not be intimidated. We demand an immediate independent investigation into the “July 2025 Threats” and the “February 2026 Assassination Plot.” The world is watching.
Dr. Drama, PhD Counterterrorism contributed this piece via: gsgvehshsvg@gmail.com
