Group Wants IGP To Unban Edo Security Outfit, Lauds Obaseki On Projects 

A socio-cultural organisation in Edo State, Aigbe-Edo Progressives Alliance (A.P.A), on Thursday, called on the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to lift the ban placed on the state’s local vigilante group, Edo Security Network (ESN) since the eve of the 2024 governorship election in the state.

LEADERSHIP reports that the call may not be unconnected to the resurgent cult-related killings and other criminal activities in parts of Benin City metropolis and its environs.

The group in a statement signed by its President, Carl Otokiti, also described Governor Godwin Obaseki’s last-minute project commissioning programme as ‘manifestation of patriotic governance’ in the state.

Obaseki had on Monday, October 28, 2024, embarked on series of project commissioning, including the remodelled Edo College of Agriculture Igueorhiakhi, the remodelled Nigerian Observer Newspaper, the Education Infrastructure Hub in Iyaro and the commissioning of the Edo College of Health and Technology in Benin City, the State capital.

Otokiti noted that the Benin people were proud to be associated with the patriotic governance pedigree of the outgoing Governor Obaseki and expressed gratitude to the governor’s team in repositioning the state.

Part of the statement read; “We owe the present and future generations a responsibility of tracking patriotic governance, and to commend such worthy disposition or condemn proponents of anti patriotism. From every indication, judging by the architecture, due diligent personnel staff recruitment, hard and soft wares assembled in these three constructed and re-constructed public infrastructures.

“We do here and now appeal to the managers of these newly commissioned ultra modern facilities, to keep them in very good use, in order to maximally render the organic services they were built for. We want to especially appreciate the immediate-past Secretary to the State Government, Barr. Osarodion Ogie, for his bird eye view support in the design, building and commissioning interventions of these and other gigantic infrastructures of our dear State, scattered across the three senatorial districts.

“The remodelled Edo College of Agriculture Igueorhiakhi, the remodelled Nigerian Observer Newspaper, the newly constructed Education Infrastructure hub in Iyaro are all manifest attestation to the patriotic governance mindset that a people can minimally wish for. And Governor Godwin Obaseki is deserving of the unsolicited commendation, and he is so granted.

“We urge Benin youths to shun every act of occultism and cultism, which have led to deaths of promising young leaders, scare of potential investors, and the wanton destruction of properties.

“We call on the Inspector General of Police to immediately and unconditionally lift the ban on Edo Security Network, so, the task of complimentary policing can be restored back, as these menaces were already a thing of the past before the eve of the last election, when the ESN was banned.

“Godwin Obaseki administration has impacted the Edo State estate development sector, in social security, as well as the massive influx of multinational industries, these legacies will absolutely outlive many administrations to come.”