Benin Cultural Forum has petitioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, over the state commissioner of police, Funsho Adegboye’s handling of the attack at Benin Airport on the convoy of All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate, Senator Monday Okpebholo.
The group asserted that if Adeboye had diligently played his role in crisis management, Inspector Akor Onu would not have been killed by the attackers.
Aku was killed last Thursday in Benin when suspected political thugs attacked the convoy of Okpebholo, as he arrived at the airport in the company of Philip Shaibu.
The forum, in a petition signed by its executive director, Banky Aideyan, warned that a section of the political class would no longer trust the police in Edo State under Adeboye if his role in the crisis was not investigated and appropriate sanctions imposed on whoever is culpable.
The group feared that if the incident was ignored, it could degenerate into a breakdown of law and order in the build-up to electioneering ahead of the September 21 governorship election.
While also condemning the use of Edo vigilante operatives as political thugs, the forum urged President Tinubu to set up a panel of inquiry to investigate the role of the police in the death of one of their own.
Aideyan, while praising the idea of state police as the only panacea to the country’s current insecurity, admonished the Presidency that the recent Edo political crisis would form a good case study in establishing the state police system.
He said the death of the police officer could have been avoided if the commissioner of police had done his homework by discouraging the political thugs and opposing the use of vigilantes as political thugs by officials of the state government.
“The commissioner of police knew that the thugs were gathering, and they stayed there for several hours before the altercation took place. He had enough time to avert the crisis,” the group said.
While calling for the deployment of more security personnel and rejig of the current security architecture in the state, the forum said there are ominous signs that the governorship election will be violent, considering the loose thugs on the streets of the state and the desperation of some politicians.
Akor, who was a member of Senator Okpebholo’s security team, was mauled down by gunmen who engaged the APC candidate in Airport Road in Benin City.
Several other persons were also said to have received gunshot wounds during the attack, which some persons believed was targeted at Okpebholo and not Shaibu.
