A Benin City High Court, (Vocation Court One), Edo State, on Monday, remanded seven thugs nabbed by the Police with illegal firearms, during the invasion of the Edo State House of Assembly complex.
The thugs, identified as Festus Agbonrenren (25 years), Odion Osayande (23 years), Ogbeiwe Wilfred (52 years), Morgan Uwaigboe (47 years), Osayomore Salami (25 years), Ifeoluwa Oladele (36 years), and Iginobaro Collins (26 years), were arrested on August 6 within the premises of the Edo Assembly complex with five double-barrel long guns, two single barrel long guns, and 10 live cartridges.
According to several Police sources, they have allegedly confessed to being mobilised by the Governor’s aides, Kabiru Adjoto and Osaigbovo Iyoha, to deny elected members of the Edo Assembly, opposed to Obaseki, entry into the Assembly complex.
They allegedly provided cover for other thugs who removed the roof of the Edo Assembly complex, vandalised its chambers, and tipped heaps of sand at its entrance in a violent chaos.
The presiding Judge, Justice Efe Ikponmwonba, said the thugs should be remanded in the Police custody pending the determination of the case on August 25.
However, in a decision said to be indicative of the sensitivity of the case, the Judge said that the suspects should not be brought to court during the next sitting but kept in the Police custody where developments on the case would be relayed to them by their legal representatives.
Several prominent Civil Society Organisations have called on the Police to follow the prosecution to a conclusive end and resist the reported attempt by Governor Godwin Obaseki to either influence the testimony of the thugs, who had already allegedly confessed their ties to the Governor.
One of the groups condemned the Governor’s invasion of the State House of Assembly, saying it set terrible precedence that posed a serious threat to the democracy of the State, and urged the Police and State Judiciary to consider the trial of the thugs caught with the illegal arms as the starting point to reaffirming their commitment to the rule of law and the stamping out of impunity and violence.
